Kideco's contractor starts recruiting new workers

Coal mining contractor PT Thiess Contractor Indonesia (TCI), a contractor of PT Kideco Jaya Agung which operates in East Kalimantan, on Tuesday began to recruit new workers after a number of its employees declined to get back to work in protest of the company?s unwillingness to pay for their overtime service.

The protesting workers had been asked to returnto work on Thursday at the latest, but none of them had shown up at TCI?s operation site as demanded, TCI office manager HM Aksa Arsyad told Kaltim Post.

?Their absence had not only caused the company suffer losses of about Rp 18 billion, but also had made the state sustaining a loss of Rp 3 billion on its tax and royalty revenues,? Arsyad said.

But, Arsyad declined to comment on whether the workers who did not return to work would be laid off. He only said that their action contradicted the decision made by the director general for manpower supervision that TCI?s workers work for 12 hours daily, including the one-hour lunch time, compared with the seven-hour standard.

Moreover, the director general, in his decision letter, did not mention that the company was obliged to increase the workers? meal and housing allowance because of the increase in their working hours, Arsyad added.

Arsyad said the company and leaders of Indonesian Prosperous Union (SBSI) actually had signed an agreement in Balikpapan on the 12-hour working time.

Meanwhile, Kideco?s general affairs manager Ali Patan told Petromindo.com on Monday that the compnay was operating normally. But, its production activities might be disrupted if the workers? strike continued. (*)