Freeport’s workers who got fired (Jubi)
Timika, 20/3 (Jubi) – Hundreds of workers employed by Freeport Indonesia’s contractors gathered in the office of the local trade union to protest their dismissal.
“These colleagues came to fight against their dismissal by PT FI ,” the Secretary of trade union PC SPKEP SPSI of Mimika Regency, Maskat Kaliki, told to tabloidjubi.com on Wednesday night.
Freeport has said that the 25-percent export tax for copper concentrates imposed in January is a burden and it may have to lay off thousands of employees.
He said it was clear that the company started to fire some workers, either they were registered as members of SPSI or not. Furher, he said that PT Inamco has fired two hundred workers, including their temporary and permanent staffers as well as the daily-wage workers. “We will report to the Social, Manpower and Transmigration Department of Mimika Regency about this situation. And according to department, they has not yet received the information from related companies about the workers’ reduction,” he said.
Hengky Binur, the Deputy Secretary of Human Resources and Organization Division said the task of PUK SPSI (Working Unit Officer of Indonesian Trade Union) is to protect, defend and fight for the rights of workers. Though they respected to the government’ regulations, they wished it would not raise a negative impact.
“However, if the regulation affected to the termination of contract against the workers, we would ask the government as a regulator to able to allocate budgets to cover the needs of workers and their families when they get fired,” he said.
Binur further said if this situation continued, he and his workers would come to the Parliament Office of Mimika Regency to warn the government about what was happening. He said they are ready for any consequences to defend people’s interests.
The Chairman of PUK SPKEP SPSI PT Inamco Varia Jasa, Samuel George Awom said the Mining Law was not only affecting the workers but also all the economic sectors. He said both economic and development sectors of Mimika Regency depended on PT FI.
“We want the management’s transparency to clearly inform us who will be fired, because the number is likely to increase but is unknown,” Awom said. (Jubi/Eveerth/rom)
