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)