Newmont cannot fire workers: Minister

PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), the country's second-largest copper and gold producer, cannot execute its plan to lay off workers without formal consent from the government, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said as reported by The Jakarta Post.

Jero said that the company had not informed him of the cost-cutting plan, which the company argued stemmed from low production and the stagnation of mineral prices.

"Whatever the reason is, they cannot simply trim the number of workers without consulting us [the government] first," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of an event marking the 67th anniversary of the Indonesian mining and energy sector.

Newmont, according to Jero, "must go through a lengthy discussion with the government before executing the plan".

According to an internal company memo signed by NNT President Director Martiono Hadianto on Sept. 27, a copy of which was obtained by the Post, the company has informed its employees of the plan to let go of around 20 percent of expatriate workers and 2.8 percent of local staff this month. NNT currently employs 4000 permanent workers and 3000 contract workers.

When asked about the distribution of the internal memo, Martiono said that while the company had indeed been planning to trim its workforce, the plan "was not yet fixed".

"We are still mulling over the plan. A plan is, after all, a plan," he said in Jakarta while confirming the percentages of the workers the company planned to reduce as outlined in the memo.(*)