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)