Mediation in Animale case fails to reach settlement

By Irawaty Wardany , The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Mon, 07/28/2008 10:14 AM | Bali

Mediation by the Bali Legislative Council has failed to resolve the dispute between PT Mitra Garment Indoraya, the producer of the Animale clothing line, and its employees.

The mediation meeting on Thursday was attended by company representatives and employees, but the local Manpower Agency was not able to find a solution as both parties refused to back down from their position.

The company's employees, represented by Ichsan Tantowi, steadfastly repeated their demand that all workers who had participated in the strike should be rehired by the company as permanent workers.

The company insisted only workers with good records would be hired.

"We are ready to start work anytime the company needs us as long as we can all be hired as a permanent workers," Ichsan said at the tripartite meeting at the Bali Legislative Council in Denpasar.

Speaking on behalf of the company, Wayan Sulastra from the human resources division said, "We are open for workers who really want to work in the company, not for those who only want to make problems."

He was apparently referring to workers who had joined a two-week strike in protest against the company's new payment scheme.

Sulastra said they could apply for work anytime but he would only select workers with good records.

"To date, 300 employees that have come back to work in our company," he said.

Commenting on the strike, Sulastra said the company had never paid its workers less than Denpasar's regional minimum wage of Rp 800,000 (US$87) a month.

Ayu, one of the employees, said their payment had been reduced from Rp 7,000 (76 US cents) to Rp 3,000 for each piece of cloth completed.

"The problem is the regional minimum wage increases every year while the amount the company pays decreases, which makes it difficult for us to meet the minimum target," she said during the strike.

"So we have finish at least 38 pieces of clothes everyday to be able to get paid Rp 800,000 (a month)," she said.

She added that to meet the target they could not even go to the toilet sometimes because they had to rush.

Sulastra refuted her claim.

"Even though there are some workers who fail to meet the target payment, they are subsidized by the company," he said.

He said the reason for the new payment scheme was that orders for the company's products had fallen by up to 50 percent, affecting revenue.

AA. Gde. Anom Wartawan, head of the industrial relations and manpower dispute division at the Manpower Agency, said the company did not have a mutual cooperation agreement, a written document binding the company and its workers.

Such documents detail the responsibilities and rights of both the company and the workers.

Made Arjaya, head of Bali Legislative Council's Commission I, which oversees legal and administrative affairs, ordered the Manpower Agency to start an investigation into the company's situation.

"We want the result delivered to us two weeks from now and later we will make a recommendation to the governor to determine what steps should be taken on this matter," he said.