Local villagers plan protest against Caltex

Around 202 local villagers who had been recruited in August by oil and gas firm PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) as temporary security staffs to help secure the company's assets are planning to held a demonstration protesting the company's decision to dismiss them.

The Riau Post daily reported that the villagers protested because Caltex did not informed them that they had been dismissed since end of last month.

The paper said that the villagers were recruited in August to help secure Caltex assets during massive demonstration by it's the employees of one of its contractors. The villagers were paid Rp 35,000 each per day.

But CPI public relations officer Tiya Permata said that the company had informed the Mandau Police unit about the decision to dismiss the informal security group. The company expected the police to transfer the decision to the villagers.

Tiya said that the informal security group was only temporary and according to the regulation, foreign oil and gas companies were not allowed to employ unprofessional security staffs.

She said that the company initially decided to dismiss the informal security group in early December, but it postponed it to end of the month.(*)