Freeport meets with IndustriALL over industrial issues
Friday, August 11 2017 - 07:03 AM WIB
Petromindo|Thomas
Gold and copper giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) met on Thursday with representatives of IndustriAll, which represents labor unions globally, over recent industrial disputes.
?The IndustriALL team sought a discussion with PTFI regarding the status of certain former employees at the Grasberg mine in Indonesia?s Papua Province and the industrial issues that PTFI and the unions have been discussing in recent months,? PTFI said in a statement.
PTFI said in the statement it employs thousands of Indonesians, many of them are Papuans, in its operations area in Papua, and continues to conduct extensive training and qualification of new workers there.
Regarding the industrial issue, Riza Pratama, VP Corporate Communications at PTFI, said the company is guided by the laws and regulations governing such matters, as well as the Collective Labor Agreement between the labor union and the company. ?In this case, resignations were an unfortunate consequences for a number of workers who had prolonged absenteeism from work despite multiple efforts and requests by the company to return to work,? he explained.
PTFI said last month its copper production in the second quarter of this year was particularly undermined by worker absenteeism.
The company said that beginning in mid-April 2017, PTFI experienced a high level of worker absenteeism. During May 2017, a significant number of employees and contractors participated in an illegal strike and did not respond to PTFI's multiple summons to return to work. As a result, these workers were deemed to have voluntarily resigned pursuant to Indonesian laws and regulations.
The company said that during second-quarter 2017, PTFI took steps to mitigate the impacts of worker absenteeism, including producing from available mine and mill stockpiles and selling concentrate in inventory produced in first-quarter 2017. PT-FI is also taking steps to increase its workforce in order to restore normal operating rates.
PTFI has also been engaged in negotiations for the past few months with the government of Indonesia over its future operations at the Grasberg mine following the introduction of new government regulations earlier this year. The negotiations are expected to be concluded in October.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak