Jakarta – Thousands of bank employees and bus drivers staged separate demonstrations in Jakarta yesterday, demanding greater rights for workers.
Several thousand employees of state-owned Bank BTN protested outside their head office on Jalan Gadjah Madah, Central Jakarta, calling for the resignation of the bank's director, Tito Sulaksono, as he plans to lay-off more than 1,280 staff in the near future.
The demonstration was spearheaded by BTN Trade Union (SP) and attracted droves of supporters. Secretary of BTN Trade Union, Satya Wijayantara, said the mass lay-offs are part of an efficiency drive to make the bank healthier and more competitive. However, the plan was never discussed with the bank's staff, he added.
Wijayantara said that when staff asked the director why he had not discussed the plan with them, Sulaksono replied it was his prerogative and there was no need to hold any talks.
"And when we asked him about severance pay, he just said the compensation is also the prerogative of the director and any discussions with the Trade Union would be a waste of time," Wijayantara told reporters.
The mass dismissals are scheduled to take place in September, but the staff still don't know who will be sacked, let alone what sort of redundancy package will be on offer.
Therefore, the employees want Finance Minister Bambang Subianto to replace the "arrogant" Sulaksono with a new director.
"Besides that, we also want the board of directors of Bank BTN to give us better social facilities, and we hope that any future discussions will not include Tito Sulaksono," said Wijayantara, speaking on behalf of the protesters. The "social funds" wanted by the staff include allowances for housing, medical expenses and transport.
The demonstrators displayed posters and banners, with slogans such as "We have been able to topple the dictator Soeharto, now let's get the director of Bank BTN", "Remove the arrogant director", and "BTN suffers from big losses but the director is sleeping".
As the demonstration concluded in the afternoon, the staff all signed a large piece of fabric measuring 1 by 15 meters, urging the finance minister and bank's board of directors to sack Sulaksono.
Across town in East Jakarta, about 1,000 bus conductors and drivers, staged a protest outside the office of state-owned bus company PPD on Jalan Halim Perdana Kusuma, demanding they be paid the minimum wage.
Earlier this year, the minimum wage in Jakarta was Rp198,500 (US$30) for 26 working days per month. In April, the minimum wage was raised by almost 20% to Rp231,000 (US$34), but the PPD employees are still receiving the old salary level. With overtime, the minimum wage should amount to about Rp300,000 (US$45). That's an amount the bus drivers and conductors can only dream of.
Coordinator of the protest, Darwin T.B., said that if the service provided by drivers and conductors doesn't satisfy passengers, it's because their salaries are so low.
He said the workers are struggling to survive amid the prolonged economic crisis, so they are more worried about their own plight than the comfort and convenience of passengers.
PPD's board of directors on Saturday had agreed to increase the wages of their employees by 30%, but the drivers and conductors said that's still not enough to live on.
"We need an increase of up to 110% not 30%, because if we agree to the decision of the board of directors, those of us who are earning about Rp200,000 [US$30] per month will get nothing above Rp260,000 [US$38] per month," said Darwin.
The drivers and conductors said that if PPD's board of directors doesn't fulfill their demands, they will continue their strike. The strike caused chaos for Jakarta's commuters, with many left stranded, unable to get to work.
PPD has a fleet of thousands of public buses, mostly longer-bodied vehicles managed by the Patas bus group.
[On July 8 the Indonesian Observer reported that the PPD management had given in and will award workers a 120 percent wage in crease in two stages starting from July 1. The directors also promised to fulfill the workers' request for a guaranteed pension scheme - James Balowski.]