VICO awaiting decision on compensation for former workers

The management of oil and gas producer PT Vico Indonesia will increase severance pay of 90 former workers in East Kalimantan only if the central office of labor dispute settlement (P4P) orders it to do so, a senor company official said Thursday as reported by local daily Kaltim Post.

?P4 is the most appropriate authority to make decision on the matter,? Vico?s senior general affairs manager Syaiful Rahman said.

Syaiful said his company had in fact paid severance pay to all workers who had asked for early retirement in accordance with the decision of the provincial office of labor dispute settlement body (P4D). However, the former workers later demanded for an increase in severance pay arguing that what they had received had been below the amount stipulated by existing regulations.

The workers appealed their case to P4P last year.

Earlier reports said Vico had laid off 400 workers since 2000. Last year, they asked local council members to press the company management to increase their severance pay.

The company produces oil and gas in its Bontang fields in East Kalimantan. Its gas goes to Badak NGL?s liquefied natural gas plant in Bontang.

World energy giant BP partly owns Vico. (*)