Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – A foreign company in Medan, North Sumatra, has reportedly dismissed workers for planning to form a labor union at their work place.

The 97 dismissed workers filed a report to the Malaysian consulate in Medan on Tuesday, over the move by Malaysian-based PT Smart Glove Indonesia. They urged Malaysian consulate general Fauzi Omar to demand company director Alan Wong to reinstate all the dismissed workers.

A member of the workers' advocacy team, Bambang Hermanto, said Alan Wong's move to dismiss the workers was against the existing law, adding that the 1945 Constitution guarantees freedom of association.

The action, he said, also broke the law because the company above had prevented workers from working despite their initial approval from the Industrial Affairs Court.

One of the dismissed workers, Yayuk Anggraini, said the company dismissed them on March 27 and there were initially 112 workers dismissed, but the company had reinstated 15 workers with unclear reasons.

Yayuk questioned why the company had dismissed them, when a number of other workers who had long established another union at the company were not fired.

"The management disallowed us to set up a labor union in the company, but approved one union formed by a number of employees from the personnel division," Yayuk said, adding that the union was called Cahaya Indonesia Trade Union (SPCI).

Another dismissed worker, Dedi Siswoyo, said they were surprised to learn that the company had dismissed them without notice or a warning letter.

The company had suppressed workers' rights for the three-and-a-half years Dedi had worked there, it had often failed to pay overtime wages and had forbidden menstruation leave for female workers, he said.

"Frankly, we have been repressed in terms of our working conditions and restrained against our right to associate as stipulated in the law," Dedi said.

An official who greeted the workers, from the Malaysian consulate in Medan, Maim Yazid, said the consulate expressed concerns over the fate of the dismissed workers.

However, the consulate had no rights to meddle with the internal affairs of PT Smart Glove Indonesia, he said, but would question the company's management in the near future.

"I will first report the matter to the consulate general because he has the authority to summon the company management," Yazid said.