Workers stage protest over unclear status

Workers stage protest over unclear status

JAKARTA (JP): Over 70 workers of Tangerang-based spinning
company PT Putra Indah Makmur (PIM) staged a protest at the
Ministry of Manpower yesterday over their unclear status.

They demanded that they be allowed to meet with Minister of
Manpower Abdul Latief to directly inform him of their grievances
and to ask for his help in resolving their conflict with the
factory's management.

"We have not been allowed to work for more than a year, since
we refused to be transferred from the firm's spinning division to
another division," said 32-year-old Ismanto, a representative of
the protesters. Ismanto said that none of the protesting workers
had ever received notice from the management that their
employment had been terminated.

Over 150 workers refused to carry out the transfer order in
December 1993, out of fear that it would result in a drastic cut
to their daily wages, Ismanto said. He added that in the spinning
division, they had earned daily wages of between Rp 6,000
(US$2.72) and Rp 8,000 each, far higher than Rp 4,000 at the new
division.

In January 1994 the workers brought the case before the local
Tangerang manpower office's board for the resolution of labor
conflicts but, a year later, no decision has been announced.

"We are afraid that the local manpower office has accepted a
bribe," the representative said.

Ismanto, accompanied by two other workers, was finally allowed
to hold talks with an official of the ministry, Basuki. In the
mean time the other protesters gathered at the front of the
building, holding banners declaring "Tangerang local manpower
office is impotent" and "PT PIM ignores its workers".

They demanded the management choose one of two alternatives:
employ them again or fire them with three-month's separation pay.

Ismanto, a former officer of the All Indonesian Workers Union
unit at the company, said the labor union, whose chairman is also
the personnel manager of the company, had done nothing to end the
conflict.

He said that working conditions at the company were very poor
because the management did not respect the workers's rights.

"Overtime work, for example, is not paid, and transportation
and health allowances are not provided. Moreover, the role of the
workers union is engineered in such a way as to make it
subservient to the management," he said.

Ismanto said that most protesters wanted the company to
formally fire them but to give them separation payment.

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

"Many families have been forced to divorce and many others
will follow because of quarrels that have resulted from the
absence of an income," he said.

"We are determined that the company give us separation
payment," said Arif, another protester, who admitted that he had
been forced to sell his pet cocks to pay for his trip to the
ministry office.

Basuki, an official of the ministry, told the protesters that
his ministry would instruct the Tangerang manpower office to help
settle their problem as soon as possible. (rms)