Former employees sue aircraft maker PT DI

Former employees of state-run aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) filed a lawsuit worth Rp 70.7 billion (about US$8.3 million) against the company management at the Bandung District Court on Wednesday. The 168 plaintiffs are former PT DI employees who were laid off in 2003.

In the civil lawsuit, they also sued the office of the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, the House of Representatives and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

“The lawsuit has no political motive at all. This is purely from us who were laid off in 2003. We’ve been fighting for seven years, but our pension funds, which are part of our rights, have not been paid yet,” PT DI Former Employees Representatives secretary-general Momo Sediadi said moments before attending the court proceeding at the Bandung District Court.

According to Momo, the plaintiffs are part of the 6,561 employees dismissed by PT DI in 2003.

The basis of the lawsuit, Momo said, was the decision by the Central Committee for Labor Dispute Settlement dated Jan. 29, 2004, which was legally strengthened by the Supreme Court. One of its decisions was to require PT DI to pay compensation in the form of pension funds based on the workers most recent salary in 2003 when the decision to dismiss them was issued.

However, PT DI had compensated them based on their basic salary in 1991, so they only received a third of the compensation they should have received. “The ruling has not been implemented as of now, despite the fact that PT DI deducted pension fees from our monthly salaries,” Momo said.

The civil lawsuit filed by the former PT DI employees was initially scheduled for Feb. 22, 2012, but it was postponed for three weeks by presiding judge Dulaemi because the trial was only attended by lawyers from the plaintiffs and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

“The key defendant failed to attend the trial on the grounds they were still searching for a defense lawyer, while the others said they had not been notified. We will summon them again in the trial which will resume in next three weeks,” Dulaemi said.

The coordinator of the plaintiffs’ defense team, Ucok Rolando P Tamba, said he had told the defendant to pay the pension funds of the 168 former PT DI employees. “The amount that we proposed has met the requirement of the plaintiffs’ last salary — Rp 13.75 billion for the total pension funds, Rp 40 billion for immaterial damages and Rp 16.8 billion for the struggle to gain their rights since 2003,” Ucok said.

According to Ucok, the civil lawsuit is a rational step in demanding the rights of the former PT DI employees.