Workers demand severance pay

TANGERANG: Hundreds of workers of bag producer PT Tasindo in Carewet village of Cikupa district and security guard supplier for Soekarno-Hatta International Airport PT Tri Otomat Pratama Guard staged separate rallies on Monday, demanding severance pay.

Some 650 workers of PT Tasindo staged a rally at the Tangerang regency council office in Tigaraksa, asking the council to order the company to pay their severance pay as regulated in minister of manpower decree No. 150/2000 on massive dismissals.

"We staged the protest because the company's management will only pay us the equivalent of one month's salary as severance pay," Sutoyono, who led the workers, said.

He said the company had dismissed workers, mostly women, after they had staged a rally demanding the company increase their monthly wage from Rp 590,000 to Rp 628,000 last month.

"We don't believe the company has gone bankrupt since our rally last month. It was just an excuse," said another worker, adding that they had filed three complaints with the regency's manpower office, but to no avail.

Separately, 350 security officers of PT Tri Otomat Pratama Guard staged a rally at the Tangerang municipal council office on Monday over similar demands.

"We've heard that we will be dismissed because the contract between PT Tri Otomat and PT Angkasa Pura, which manages the airport, will soon end ... We've also heard that no severance pay will be paid even though most of us have worked for the company for three years," M. Sukisno, one of the workers said.--JP