Siswanto, a resident of Pulo Gadung in East Jakarta, has had to switch jobs to become a motorcycle taxi driver to make ends meet after being sacked from his normal full-time job without a single penny of severance pay.

Prior to November, Siswanto worked hard eight hours a day for six days a week as a permanently employed worker for a plastics processing factory in the Pulo Gadung industrial area.

After the dismissal, he received not one cent of the severance package to which he was entitled despite the fact that his working contract was still valid. However he was told he was only being dismissed temporarily until the company's financial state could be improved, and the company says this means no entitlement to contractual severance pay.

Siswanto is among thousands of unfortunate workers who are failing to get their rights after a wave of layoffs has hit the country since the fourth quarter of last year.

The huge magnitude of the dismissals has rendered the government and labor unions seemingly incapable of ensuring whether companies discharging their workers have fulfilled the rights of dismissed workers, and complied with government regulations, or not.

As in the case of Siswanto, who under the rules is entitled to part of his basic salary during "temporary dismissal".

"I am actually still under contract and should have received my basic monthly salary. However, this has not happened with my company. Me and my colleagues have decided to take this matter to court," he said.

Siswanto is not alone. There are around 100 workers from the same company that have been "temporarily dismissed" for months without receiving their monthly salaries.

Such breaches of the labor laws are likely to become more widespread as the economic crisis hits.

Subhan, a worker with a processing company in Serang, Banten, was recently been laid off without getting any severance pay because the company claimed it no longer had any money or other assets to cover workers' entitlements.

"We have no other options. The company's assets could not be used to cover our benefits," he said.

Under the existing regulations, the company is required to provide a permanently discharged worker at least with severance and service pay.

Under the 2003 Labor Law, workers receive severence pay based on the length of service they have already worked with the company. Someone who has worked for 24 years at a company is entitled to severance pay equal to 38 times their monthly salary.

Deny Syamsudin, an employee for a factory in Cilegon, Banten, is more fortunate as he still receives his salary by working in monthly rotation with his colleagues.

"Since the company decided to reduce production, I have been working alternate monthly shifts, taking turns with my other colleagues," he said.

"With this system, we have to live two months with a one month salary, and sometimes the salary comes late," he said, but its better than having no job at all.

On March 11, some 100 workers from garment factory PT Inkosindo Sukses, located in the industrial zone in North Jakarta, staged a protest at the City Council in Central Jakarta, while laid-off workers from manufacturing company PT Mulia Industrindo staged their own rally at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry on Jl. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta.

Inkosindo Employees Forum head Siti Nurul Alifah said the company, which produces apparel for internationally renowned brands, filed for bankruptcy in early January and laid off around 1,300 employees "without adequate severance pay".

Some 500 workers from Mulia Industrindo were fired without severance pay after staging a strike since last month. These problems may get worse before things improve.

- JP/Faisal Maliki Baskoro

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