KPC to ask for a "force majeur" status

Coal mining giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) is rumored to immediately to ask to the government to give a "force majeur" status to its Sangatta mining site in East Kalimantan if employee demonstration continues.

The Neraca daily reported on Monday that the force majeur status was needed to avoid penalty from foreign coal buyers due to delay in coal shipment.

KPC external relations manager Bambang Susanto confirms the rumor, saying: "It's true that there's plans by KPC management to ask for a force majeur status."

But he said that the force majeur status was the last resort. He said that the company still expected the employee demonstration to end.

He said that if the current demonstration continued, KPC could not be able to honor its coal export contract.

Bambang also said that the company has the rights to ask for a force majeur status from the government as stipulated in its mining contract with the government.

Some 150 KPC employees has staged a demonstration since June 14 near the company's coal processing plant causing disruption in the company's production and transfer of coal to the local port.

The protesting employees have been demanding a higher salary and better social welfare package. The protesting employees are only those grouped in the All Indonesian Labor Union or popularly called SBSI, a radical labor grouping led by Mochtar Pakpahan.

Meanwhile, Neraca said that the local police had managed at the weekend to force the protesting employees to move their demonstration out from the coal processing plant facility. But the paper said that two hours later, the protesting employees had returned. (*)