Thousands of Caltex workers reject early retirement offer

Nearly 10,000 workers of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia?s manpower contractor PT Tripatra have refused the company?s early retirement offer. They accused the early retirement plan which is called a voluntarily resignation program, as another kind of layoffs which would only benefit the company, Neraca reported on Wednesday.

"We reject that early retirement program. It is an undisguised layoff which will only benefit the company," Husanadi Hussein, the chairman of Tripatra?s workers forum, said at the Riau governor?s office in Pekanbaru on Tuesday.

Husanadi and other representatives of the workers went the Governor?s office to express their protest against Tripatra?s early retirement program. As part of its efficiency program, Tripatra plans to cut the number of its workers by about 3,700 people from about 10,000 at present. But the workers said that the program violated the existing manpower regulation.

Husanadi said that workers? leaders had met the company?s management but the later defended the so-called early retirement program saying that the program would be better than the layoff measure. But workers felt that the layoff would be better for them because they could receive higher compensation payment.(*)