Workers protest over severance pay

Workers protest over severance pay

JAKARTA (JP): Over 150 workers of the Tangerang-based spinning
factory PT Putra Indah Makmur staged a protest at the Ministry of
Manpower yesterday over the company's refusal to pay
severance money in line with a proposal from the ministry.

Asril, one of the protesters, told reporters that the
ministry's Central Board for Labor Settlement recommended
recently that the factory's management pay severance payment,
amounting to six-months of salaries, to workers involved in a
dispute with the factory.

"Instead of abiding by the proposal the management asked us to
resign with a severance pay of only three months of salaries," he
said.

Under the existing labor law, the workers should be paid for
the last six months, during which time the conflict was processed
by the labor dispute settlement board. The company has to give an
additional payment amounting to three months of salaries if the
workers are fired.

The workers, who have been laid off since July, 1993, refused
the management's offer and launched a sit-in protest in front of
the ministry's office yesterday, demanding that the factory
comply with the board's decision.

The protesters were later allowed to enter the building, where
they were received by Iskandar, an official of the ministry.

The workers said that, over the past 23 months, they have been
under unclear status after the company handed their jobs over to
a contractor.

Ismanto, another protester, said the factory should choose one
of two possible alternatives: Employ them again, or fire them
with severance pay amounting to nine months of salaries.

He said it is better for the factory to formally fire them and
comply with the board's proposal because most of the workers have
been employed in other companies.

The prolonged conflict was initiated by the management's
decision to remove the workers from the spinning division to
another section. The contract workers refused to go on working at
the new section because their daily income were sharply cut from
about Rp 10,000 (US$4.54) to Rp 5,000. Their status has been
unclear since then because they were neither fired, nor given job
orders.

Representatives of the factory were not available for comment
yesterday.

Riyaat, another protester, said the prolonged conflict had
damaged the workers' lives.

"Many fellow workers have been forced to divorce and many
others have gone back to their hometowns because of quarrels that
have resulted from the absence of
an income," he said. (rms)