Arientha Primanita – A protest on Wednesday by about 200 angry contract teachers in front of City Hall turned ugly after they claimed they were being ignored and began throwing pots and plants at the building.

The teachers wanted the city to promote them to civil servants, as promised by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, said Eddi Sudiyo, a member of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Teacher Supporting Communication Forum (FKGBI), which claims to represent more than 6,700 contract educators.

Contract teachers currently only receive a Rp 710,000 ($78) monthly subsidy from the central government. Being promoted to civil servant status as full-time teachers would mean higher pay, health insurance and pensions.

Eddi said they were ignored by the administration in a protest last week, so they returned to the City Hall early on Wednesday morning, armed with mats, cooking tools and equipment as they were prepared for a protracted demonstration.

But by late afternoon the weary protesters became impatient and started throwing things – tomatoes, cooking pots and even the potted plants decorating the exterior of the City Hall – over the fence. Police officers watched the protesters but not intervene.

"They are angry and impatient. We have been here since morning, we want to meet the governor or city secretary," Eddi said. The city offered them a meeting with the head of the city's human resources office, but they refused, he said.

Syarifah Efiana, chairwoman of FKGBI, said that the governor had once promised them civil servant status based on the revision of 2005 Presidential Decree on Contract Workers in 2007. "Right now we only want the governor to seriously consider our fates," she said.

Budi Hastuti, the human resources head, said the city was coordinating with the State Ministry of Education and State Ministry of Administrative Reforms on the city's contract teachers' status.