Total employees demand higher salary
Thursday, September 14 2000 - 03:30 AM WIB
Hundreds of employees of East Kalimantan oil and gas firm PT Total Indonesie have demanded a raise in salary since last week, according to the local Kaltim Post daily.
The paper said that the demand was made by employees from the company's operations in Senipah, Handil, Bekapai, Balikpapan and other places.
"Company profit is high. So we also want a raise in salary," the protesting employees told the paper.
The protesting employees were being coordinated by SPNTI labor union. SPTNI stands for Serikat Pekerja Nasional Total Indonesie, an internal labor union.
Head of Total Indonesie communications department Nurul Fazrie confirmed that some employees had been demanding a higher wage.
Nurul said that although the salary at Total was already much higher than the regional minimum wage, company management would accommodate the demand.
He said that the management would meet at the end of this month to discuss the matter.
Nurul also praised the employees for making the demand in a peaceful and democratic way without causing disruption to the company's operation. (*)