Jayapura, Jubi – A Papua legislator warned PT. Redpath Indonesia, a Freeport Indonesia affiliated company, to immediately rehire 125 employees who were fired in May, or face expulsion from Papua.
Wilhelmus Pigai said most of these employees are Papuans. Further he said the company is a foreign company that comes to exploit the Papua’s natural resources.
“I ask the company to rehire those employees unconditionally. If it has no good intention, we will take another way. It would be in the black list if necessary,” Pigai said on Tuesday (15/12/2015).
He said he already met with the employees. They confessed that they were fired because of doing a strike some times ago. At that time, the employees demanded the company to pay their bonus as promised. However, the company considered their action was illegal.
“They were fired without recognition from the Court. In accordance to the Manpower Regulation No 13 Year 2003, contract termination should be terminated by legal process at the Court. The employees are the Indonesian citizens and have rights to express their aspiration,” he said.
The company, according to him, has pledge a bonus for the employees during the huge protest of Freeport’s workers some times ago. At that time, PT. Redpath Indonesia asked its employees for not being involved in the rally. Those who were not participated into the demonstration would be provided with bonus. But up to now it was not given and becomes the reason of the employees’ strike several months ago.
“Other Freeport’s affiliation companies such as KCP, Hero and so on provided bonus to their employees who were not involved in the demonstration. Redpath is exceptional. We have reported to the Chairman of Papua Legislative Council and he already sent the letter to PT. Redpath with copies to the president, minister of manpower, Indonesian House of Representative and other related stakeholders,” he said.
He said if the company ignored the letter from Papua Legislative Council, the parliament would take this case to the Central Government. “If the company has no good intention, we will take action. Mimika Regent and other institutions have sent the letter asking the company to rehire those employees but it was ignored,” he said.
The Chairman of Papua Legislative Council Yunis Wonda said the parliament marked three points in the letter sent on 10 December 2015 to PT. Retpath. He said Contract Termination of 125 employees is against the Regulation No. 13/2003 and Regulation No. 2/2004 about the settlement of industrial disputes.
“In addition, according to Papua Special Autonomy Law and Papua Provincial Regulation No.4/2003 about the Employment, the company operated in Papua should able to develop and prioritize the indigenous Papua,” said Wonda.
According to him, for the two reasons, the Papua Legislative Council asked PT. Redpath to rehire the fired 125 employees unconditionally. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
