One worker at Freeport contractor firm killed in work accident

A worker at a contractor firm for PT Freeport Indonesia died on Sunday due to an accident during work hours in the weekend at Freeport?s mining site, Kompas daily reported.

Ramdanai Sirait, spokesperson of Freeport Indonesia, one of the world?s largest gold and copper producers, said that the company immediately evacuated the body after the incident happened.

He said the incident has been reported to the Inspector for Mining at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. The incident occurred as majority of Freeport workers are still continuing on their two-months strike, demanding salary increase.

The workers? strike which started on September 15 is scheduled to end on November 15 with a potential for further extention should both sides fail to agree on a resolution.

Meanwhile, the government has dispatched additional team to Freeport to help facilitate negotiation between Freeport and its workers.

The director general of industrial relations and social security affairs at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, Myra Maria Hanartani, said she and her team who departed for Timika on Sunday, would lead the negotiations after the two sides agreed to return to the negotiation table on Monday.

She said her main mission was to facilitate the tripartite negotiations with the management and workers and warned them of the loss of millions of working hours which has affected both the management and workers.

?We will continue facilitating bipartite negotiations and concentrate on discussing industrial disputes in the company. With almost two months of strikes, the company?s production has dropped slightly while workers have lost millions of working hours. The negotiation will be the last chance for both sides to seek win-win solutions so that the company can resume operations,? she told The Jakarta Post. (*)