Multa Fidrus, Tangerang/Jakarta – More than 2,000 workers at two North Jakarta factories were fired without notice Tuesday after they demanded better salaries and benefits.
Workers at PT Master Steel and PT Pangeran Karang Murni – which are under the same management and are located in the same compound – turned up to work Tuesday to find the compound's main gate closed and a notice telling them the companies had shut down and all employees were laid off.
The managing director of both companies, Istanto Burhan, said in the notice that the companies had to lay off the workers because of the companies' decreasing income and workers' "irrational" demands for better wages and conditions.
He added that the companies would cooperate with the Manpower Agency to immediately settle the dispute.
Vice chairman of the Workers' Union at the companies, Sumardianto, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the union was demanding management explain the sudden layoff of the 2,100 workers.
He said the union asked the management last year to improve the workers' welfare package, which encompasses salaries, overtime wages, workers' insurance and severance pay.
"We asked the management to increase salaries by 18 percent because we had to adjust our living standard with the price of basic necessities," he said.
In response to the demand, he added, the management only offered an increase of six percent to keep in line with inflation, while severance pay and benefits were reduced.
The union and management met several times but failed to reach an agreement.
"Last weekend, the management said they were giving us a day off Monday, but that we had to go to work as usual on Tuesday," Sumardianto said.
National Commission on Human Rights chairman Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara visited the factory compound late Wednesday, asking the police to reduce the number of personnel guarding the site in anticipation of demonstrating workers.
Meanwhile, PT Prima Inreksa Shoe Industry, a manufacturing firm producing shoes for Adidas at the Jatake Industrial Plant, Pasar Kemis district, Tangerang, has temporarily sent its 7,000 workers home, saying it lacked supplies of raw materials. Following the incident, a number of councilors and several officials from the regental Manpower Agency visited the factory.
A member of the council's Commission B on manpower matters, Entus Satibi, said Wednesday that the agency had to find out if the company had really run out of raw materials as management has claimed. He said three other shoe factories linked to PT Prima Inkareksa had also halted production and sent workers home on the same day.
The other companies are PT Morina, which employs 200 workers, PT Logo with 400 workers and PT Sinco with 200 workers.
PT Prima Inkareksa Shoe Industry General Manager Ojak Manurung said the company's management would guarantee none of the workers sent home would be laid off.
"Production has merely been halted because of the late delivery of raw materials to the factory and this will only be until June 21," he said.
Tangerang regent Ismet Iskandar said if the situation at the factories worsened, his administration would step in to make sure the companies took responsibility for the fate of their workers.