Kideco to fire SBSI workers
Saturday, March 10 2001 - 04:00 AM WIB
South Korean mining firm PT Kideco Jaya Agung, which operates a coalmine in Pasir regency, East Kalimantan, is set to fire 14 workers involved in the recent strike, a report said.
East Kalimantan-based daily Kaltim Post quoted a source as saying that the company was poised to shelve the workers, who are all members of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI), following the conclusion made by the province's labor dispute settlement committee (P4D) that they had violated the existing regulation in conducting the strike.
The source, who refused to be identified, said before bringing the case to the committee, the company's director Kim Dal Soo and the head of the company's SBSI, Estepanus, had agreed that they would accept any decision to be made the committee.
Both parties agreed that If the committee concluded the company was guilty, it should compensate the workers for all their losses. But, otherwise, if the committee decided the striking workers were wrong, they should accept any punitive measures to be taken by the company in line with the regulation.
"As it turned out, the P4D, in its letter recently signed by its head Suardi, concluded that the strike was staged in violation of the existing regulation.
"Thus, the workers should accept the punitive measures to be taken by the company," the source said.
According to the source, all the 14 workers hail from outside the Pasir area.
Meanwhile, the paper reported, local police had fielded officers around the company's coalmine following rumors that the company's workers were preparing a demonstration to protest the layoff plan. (*)