Railway workers set nationwide strike for better pension scheme

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 11/07/2007 5:16 PM

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Amid efforts to restore the tarnished image of railway facilities in Indonesia, the Railway Workers' Union (SPKA) have threatened to go on a national strike from Dec. 3 to Dec. 5.

The strike is aimed at pressuring the government to bow to SPKA demands.

The union had demanded the government approve the new pension scheme for railway workers, which would entitle recipients to a higher paycheck, health benefits and other benefits usually reserved for retired civil servants.

""We have waited (for the government to approve the scheme) but there is still no certainty,"" SPKA chairman Puspawarman said Tuesday.

""If it does not approve the draft on government regulations (RPP) for the new pension scheme by the end of November, we will go on strike. We are tired of waiting,"" he said.

Approval of the RPP would give retired railway workers similar pension rights enjoyed by their counterparts from the government's agencies and bodies.

Since 2000, railway employees have staged sporadic protests against the government's decision to strip away their civil servant status. The decision had given railway workers a similar status to that of state-run companies' employees.

The decision was later revoked in a transportation ministerial decree on March 11, 1992. However, the SPKA deemed the process of implementing the decree too sluggish and decided to conduct a massive strike from Aug. 8 - 10, 2005.

However, workers canceled the strike after the then state minister of state enterprises, Soegiharto, made a decision to reinstate the status of railway workers as civil servants on Aug. 5, 2005.

The government eventually agreed to compose the RPP on the railway workers' pension scheme. It promised the RPP would be approved in Sept. 2007.

So far, the government has yet to ratify the RPP.

Around 9,000 retired railway employees across the country receive a meager pension of between Rp 200,000 (approximately US$22) to Rp 400,000 monthly, due to the revocation of their civil servant status.

Around 19,400 others face a similar fate if the government fails to approve the RPP. These workers will retire in stages until 2012.

According to Puspawarman, the strike threat was announced during a meeting on Nov. 2. The union has consolidated and informed the public on every matter concerned with the national strike, he said.

""We have asked every SPKA member to join a sit-in to improve the welfare of all members,"" Puspawarman said.

Puspawarman and SPKA secretary general Esron Pakpahan, as well as union leaders in the eight railway operational areas of Jakarta, Bandung, Cirebon, Semarang, Purwokerto, Yogyakarta, Madiun and PT KAI headquarters in Bandung, have signed and pasted circulars urging their members to go on strike.

""We are still waiting for the government's goodwill in resolving this matter, which concerns our fate.""

The Indonesian Railway Company has around 32,000 workers, 90 percent of which, SPKA claim, are members of the union.

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