Workers rally against planned layoffs

TANGERANG: Some 400 workers from wood processing company PT Tambun Kusuma staged a rally at the Tangerang legislative council on Tuesday amid fears that the management would lay them off.

The protesters accused the company of looking for shortcomings on the part of its workers by claiming that 40 percent of them held fake school diplomas.

"It is part of a management trick to seek reasons to allow the company to lay off workers, so that it can spend less on their severance pay," said Suharno, one of the protesters.

He said the workers had learned of the management's plan to relocate the factory to Surabaya, East Java.

In negotiations earlier, the company asked workers to tender their resignations and offered each Rp 1.4 million in "wisdom money".

However, the workers refused as the amount was much less than the severance pay they would have received.

Budi, another protester, said most of the workers had been employed there for more than three years.

According to the workers, the management had threatened to report to the police those proven to hold fake diplomas, unless they resigned voluntarily. --JP