Freeport?s contract workers on strike demanding pay increase

More than a thousand of workers hired by three contractors of PT Freeport Indonesia have stopped their activities on the company?s copper and gold mines in Papua as part of their protests to demand a pay hike, the mining giant said.

Freeport said that the workers, who were involved in the labor protests, were mostly hired by its contractors PT Jasti Pravita, PT Osato Seike and PT Srikandi Mitra Karya to work on expansion of the mine.

Freeport said that the strike would slow production activities, but no immediate impact was expected on its overall mining operations. It also said that the company respected the workers? rights to carry out protests as long as they were carried out legally under the existing manpower regulation.

The company had also appealed the contractors to comply with the regulations especially those related to the rights of the workers. ?We will not hesitate to issue sanctions to contractors which do not comply with the regulation,? the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Media reports said that many of the workers hired by Freeport?s contractors were below the minimum wage requirement.

A three-month strike over wages by thousands of workers directly employed by Freeport crippled production at the mine in 2011 and only ended once the firm agreed to a huge pay hike. The contract workers, who began their protests on Tuesday, said they would continue their protests until their demands were met.

Editing by Adianto P. Simamora