Jakarta – The Manpower Ministry says it received only 1,347 working contract termination files in the first two months of 2016, a 10th of the number of workers labor unions claimed were laid off in the same period.

Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri nonetheless urged companies to retain from making workers redundant; if doing so was unavoidable, he said, dialogue should be promoted to ensure harmony.

"Even if companies are struggling against stiff competition, redundancies should still be their last option," Hanif said in a meeting with House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing labor affairs in Jakarta on Thursday.

As previously reported, a number of Japanese and South Korean factories have announced plans to cut jobs in Indonesia; the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI) claimed 12,680 workers nationally would be affected.

"Redundancies should be a fair agreement between companies and workers. The workers must be paid compensation in accordance with all stipulations and agreements," the minister stated.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has pledged to boost economic growth to minimize redundancies in 2016. "We will try to keep the economy running to reduce the magnitude of layoffs," Kalla said recently, as quoted by Antara. (vps/ags)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/12/ministry-unions-disagree-over-redundancy-figures.html