Workers return home as Tyfountex bows to demands

Workers return home as Tyfountex bows to demands

JAKARTA (JP): A group of 850 laid-off workers of a Central
Java-based textile company started heading back to their hometown of
Kartosuro on Friday night shortly after their firm agreed to
reemploy them and raise their salaries, one of their leaders said
yesterday.

The workers, who had sought help from organizations here since
Monday, hoped their company, PT Tyfountex Indonesia, would keep
to the new agreement, said Abdul Latief, one of the group's
leaders.

They were provided with 12 buses by the Ministry of Manpower
for their return.

Speaking at a media conference at the Indonesian Legal Aid
Foundation office here, Abdul said the firm's lawyers had agreed
to meet the workers' demands in a tripartite meeting Friday with
Ministry of Manpower officials and the workers' representatives.

According to Abdul, the company promised to increase their
wages 15 percent in August to meet government minimum wage
standards.

"After being informed about the news, five workers fainted
while the others started singing heroic songs with tears in their
eyes," Abdul recalled.

None of Tyfountex's executives could be reached for comment
yesterday.

The 850 workers had traveled to Jakarta at their own expense,
arriving on Monday, to seek legal advice over their earlier
dismissal.

Fifteen of them were injured Tuesday when police blocked them
from marching on the street to the International Labor
Organization office.

They then decided to camp in the Ministry of Manpower compound
Wednesday after Minister Fahmi Idris refused to put his pledge to
settle the dispute in writing.

Besides supplying buses, the ministry also provided the
workers a total Rp 3 million in cash on Friday to help them with
meal and transportation expenses on their trip home.

"Only 15 workers are still here. But we're planning to leave
Jakarta this evening," he said.

According to Abdul, the company has agreed to reemploy 1,727
workers it had dismissed after they went on strike for six days
from Aug. 3.

"If the company fails to meet its promise, we will stage
another strike similar to the one we held in June," he said,
referring to a strike in which the workers demanded a salary
increase.

He said that all the workers staged a hunger strike that day
to press their demands.

Abdul, who has been a worker at the joint-venture company
since 1981, said the workers were ready to take over the company
should it decide to close its operations in Indonesia.

"If the company decides to pull out of Indonesia, we're ready
to take it over. We would set up a worker cooperative to manage
the company," he said.

"We have the right to take over the company, because since it
was established in 1970, it has made unfair deductions from our
salary each month," Abdul said, adding that the company only paid
its employees for 26 working days a month.

The workers said they were laid off by the company, which has
a total workforce of 8,000 people, after their five-day rally
early this month.

The workers quoted the management as saying that any workers
who failed to work for over five consecutive days were considered
as having resigned, and that they would not have any right to be
paid. (ivy)