Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Employees of state-owned insurance firm PT Jamsostek renewed calls Thursday for the dismissal of the company's government-appointed president director.
The protesters, who said they represented 3,800 Jamsostek employees nationwide, went on strike, staging a peaceful rally outside the company's Central Jakarta headquarters.
They said they opposed the intimidation and pressure that certain officials, unionists and workers had faced after supporting a no-confidence motion launched against the management last August.
"(Jamsostek president director) must step down as a prerequisite for calming down the mounting friction and the labor unrest of the past six months. We will otherwise continue demonstrating or launch as massive strike until the government replaces him," said Armada Abdul Karim, chief of the company's healthcare program division.
The Jamsostek Workers Union (SPJ), which supported the rally, expressed its disappointment with the government's failure to fulfill its promise to evaluate the current management's performance and create a better environment.
"Instead of consolidating Jamsostek, the president director was busy taking action apparently aimed at intimidating those who supported the no-confidence motion," said SPJ chairman Abdul Latief Algaff.
The company's management recently ran an internal survey, which workers say was mean to assess their loyalty to the president director rather than the company. Management also moved and demoted two unionists, transferred several officials and set a team to audit officials who had supported the petition.
The petition, which criticizes a number of controversial decisions made by the president director, has gained support from the House of Representatives.
Jamosostek manages Rp 38 trillion (US$4.17 billion) in public assets, carrying out social security programs for 25 million workers.
Workers say that the ongoing restructuring of the company's board of directors is related to internal friction caused by Iwan bypassing procedures when making decisions.
Iwan said separately that he would not step down and that he and other directors at the company were appointed by the government and not the workers.
He dismissed the allegations that the survey had been intended to test loyalty and that unionists and officials had been transferred for supporting the no-confidence motion.
"The law allows the management to conduct such transfers to improve the company's performance while the repositioning of the board of directors has been approved by the government as the main shareholder," he said.
Iwan was appointed president of Jamsostek in April 2005, replacing Achmad Djunaidi, who was sentenced to six years in jail for corruption. Iwan's term in office will end in April 2008.