"Working contracts in oil firms should be revoked"

Manpower and transmigration minister Jacob Nuwa Wea has given Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources a month before he revokes the regulation which allows Pertamina?s production sharing contractors (PSCs) to hire workers based on temporary contracts.

According to the regulation, the oil companies can hire workers under contracts for 20 years. With their status as temporary workers, the workers are not allowed to receive the benefits as those received by permanent workers.

Jacob said the regulation should be revoked because it was not fair to the temporary workers. "The workers have suffered a lot due to such contracts," he was quoted as saying.

He said that he had talked his plan to revoke the regulation with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resource, but no response had been made. He said that the regulation was against the Manpower Regulation No 2, 1997 and it should therefore be revoked although the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister refused to do so.(*)