Workers take grievances to rights commission
Workers take grievances to rights commission
JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of workers from three Jakarta-based
companies protested their dismissals to the National Commission
on Human Rights yesterday.
Workers of PT Yota Megah, Bouraq Airlines and PT Masindo
Multimedia told commission members they had been unfairly fired
with too little or no severance pay.
Some 200 workers of PT Yota Megah, maker of Adidas sports
apparel in North Jakarta, said their employment status had been
unclear since they went on strike on March 24.
They went on strike in a show of solidarity with six
colleagues the company had fired in January for demanding better
pay for the firm's 700 workers. The six were activists of the
local unit of the All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation.
A worker, Pesti, told commission members B.N. Marbun and M.
Salim that the company management had banned the 415 strikers
from the premises.
"We have been prohibited from entering the factory premises as
of March 31, while we haven't been officially dismissed," she
said.
Another worker, Yusuf, said the workers demanded that the
company raise their meal allowance to Rp 1,500 a day from Rp 600,
stop making employees work overtime and raise their wages from
the current Rp 172,000 (about US$21.50) a month.
Yusuf said that on March 26, the workers referred the case to
the Ministry of Manpower, which promised to help but so far there
had been no result.
Another worker, Beti Zaniah, said that uncertainty had reigned
since March 30 when the company management threatened to fire all
striking workers who failed to return to work by March 31. Few
heeded the firm's ultimatum because the management refused to
reply to the workers' demand, she said.
Marbun said the commission wanted to see the six workers, who
were not present at the meeting, dismissed in January.
"We want to get a complete picture," he said.
Bouraq
Separately, commission member Clementino dos Reis Amaral met
with seven representatives of 21 Bouraq Airlines flight
attendants who claimed their contracts were abruptly broken due
to the economic crisis.
The flight attendants went to the commission to check whether
the commission had kept its last month's promise that it would
ask Bouraq's management to pay them the rest of their salaries
which the company had withheld.
Bouraq's management broke its contracts with the flight
attendants on March 1. The contracts were valid until August this
year and July next year.
Their lawyer, Fathi Hanif, from Jakarta's Legal Aid Institute
said that up to yesterday the management had not replied to the
commission's letter, dated April 3.
Amaral promised to remind Bouraq's management about the unpaid
salaries.
Meanwhile, commission member Soegiri saw 70 workers of PT
Masindo Multimedia, a printing company in East Jakarta, who were
dismissed April 1.
According to the protesters' lawyer Hanif, the company ceased
operation due to financial difficulties and would pay
compensation amounting to a month's basic salary to each of its
96 employees.
"The workers asked the management not to close down but to
take efficiency measures first. When the company insisted on
closing down, the employees ask for compensation amounting to
twice their basic salary, but the management refused." (ind)