Jakarta – After two days of bad traffic jams in several areas and hundreds of stranded passengers, bus drivers succeeded Tuesday in winning eight months' worth of back salary from the government.
The drivers, from state-owned Perusahaan Pengangkutan Djakarta (PPD), also agreed to resume operations Wednesday. After receiving representatives of the protesters, State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto and Transportation Minister Hatta Rajasa said the drivers would be paid by August 16 at the latest.
"The payments will be made with funds drawn from other state companies," Sugiharto said, although he did not say which companies in particular would be providing the money.
The government has said it also plans to revamp PPD's management using a "holistic approach" and will make further decisions on the company's future in September.
Meanwhile, the secretary of the Indonesian Transportation Federation of the Prosperous Labor Union, Robinson Hasibuan, said bus drivers would accept the decision of the government, whether it decided to dissolve or privatize PPD. "As long as the government pays our salaries first," he added.
The drivers' demonstrations Monday and Tuesday caused severe traffic jams along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. M.H. Thamrin, as about 80 buses drove in a convoy to the Presidential Palace. Corridor I of the TransJakarta Busway, the Blok M-Kota route, was closed due to the protest.
Some 2,000 PPD bus drivers and co-drivers had reportedly not been paid in eight months because of the company's financial problems.
PPD finance director Hendarko has previously told The Jakarta Post that the company suffers monthly losses of about Rp 3.9 billion, while it needs Rp 4.8 billion a month to pay its drivers. The company plans to fire 600 of its 4,300 employees this year to save on operating costs. PPD owns 14 depots and 300 buses.
Separately, Jakarta governor Sutiyoso said the Jakarta administration was willing to take over PPD as a city-owned company as long as the "restructuring" of the company's management had already been settled.
The city also plans to buy four PPD depots, worth about Rp 420 billion, to be used as TransJakarta busses depots. "We have allocated Rp 41 billion in the city's additional spending budget, currently being deliberated by the city council, to buy one depot this year. We will allocate more funds in next year's budget to buy three more depots," he said.