1,130 Caltex employees will retire voluntarily

Around 1,130 employees of oil and gas company PT Caltex Pasific Indonesia (CPI) will join company?s voluntary retirement program, Kompas newspaper reported in its Thursday edition.

After this program, which was offered by CPI?s management recently, the total number of company?s employees will be reduced to 4,870, CPI?s spokesman Djati Susetya told Kompas in Rumbai, Pekanbaru on Thursday.

The early retirement program was offered to CPI employees in December 2003 and the last date for receiving applications for this program was January 5, 2004.

Djati said the company has agreed to the request made by 1,130 employees to retire voluntarily and they will be discharged in phases.

CPI, a subsidiary of San Francisco-based oil giant ChevronTexaco, has currently 6,000 employees.

CPI management opened this program because it wanted to have ideal and efficient number of employees in the company. It is expecting that hundreds of its employees will join the program.

Djati has declined to reveal the amount of compensation each employee will get under this program. (*)