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)