Petrosea's laid off workers demand Rp1.1 billion

As many as 11 former workers of JSX listed oil, gas and mining contractor PT Petrosea Tbk have demanded that the company pay Rp100 million (US$=Rp8549) to each of them in compensation for their layoff, East Kalimantan-based daily Kaltim Post reported on Tuesday.

The 11 people, who had worked at Petrosea?s project in Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, accused the company management of not giving the real reason behind their layoff. They were released on April 30 after working at the company for more than 10 years.

They had been told that their layoff was due to the company?s plan to liquidate its training section as part of its restructuring program. In fact, the training section was still operational, they argued.

The Balikpapan office of manpower had tried to mediate the dispute between the workers and the Petrosea management. The two sides however failed to reach a compromise.

Petrosea is one of Indonesia?s major oil, gas and mining contractors. It is 75 percent owned by Australian construction giant Clough Engineering Group. (*)