Riau companies urged to employ locals to reduce conflicts
Wednesday, January 24 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
Business contractors of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia and other companies operating in oil related activities in Riau province should take a priority on local residents in a new recruitment in a bid to reduce conflicts with the communities, an expert at the University of Riau has said.
Isjoni Msi of the university's community development institution said in Pekan Baru said that conflicts with the local community would continue if the locals felt that the companies operating in their province still paid no attention to their welfare, Riau Pos reported on Wednesday.
According to him, the people's resentment over the need to prioritize the local workers have become more outstanding issues lately as compared to those related to pollution and other business violations. "If Caltex said that it has the limit in providing the job opportunities, it is understandable because it has the capacity to provide jobs only between five to seven thousands," he said.
But he said that hundreds of companies operating as contractors of the oil giant should be involved to help the unemployment problem.
Isjoni said that Caltex should, for example, ask its contractors, which at present hire over 27,000 workers to take a priority on hiring the local residents. "Caltex should force them to employ the locals," he added.
According to him, the people's resentment could be understood because most of the people working in the province's oil related industries come from outside the province.
Caltex spokesman Poedyo Oetomo said that asking business partners to hire local residents is one of the policy already adopted by Caltex to help cope with the unemployment problem in the province. "But honestly we could not force them to do that," he added.
According to Poedyo, the awareness to hire local residents has been very encouraging lately although not all of the labor force could be accommodated.
A number of youth groups in the province have used violent actions in their protests against the lack of the local companies' commitment to employ local residents. Last week, some groups of youths seized up to 50 vehicles owned by Caltex operators as their protests against oil-related companies' reluctance to employ locals. (*)