Berita Kota' ex-workers seek agency's help

JAKARTA: Former employees of the local newspaper Berita Kota on Monday reported the newspaper's publishing company to Central Jakarta manpower agency, following its recent decision to lay off 144 workers.

Workers' representative Ariesmen Herosy said the one-sided layoff had violated the labor law because the decision had not been made by an independent audit team, and the amount of separation pay given to dismissed workers had been below the regulated standard.

"The company has acted as judge, prosecutor, police and independent audit team," Ariesmen said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

The incident had been a result of the acquisition of PT Penamas Pewarta (a company that published Berita Kota) by PT Metrogema Media Nusantara, a subsidiary of Kompas Gramedia Group. The company had seen a total of more than Rp 2 billion (US$212,000) in losses in the past two years. - JP