B

ayu, not his real name, has just lost his job of 10 years as a worker in a Japanese equipment manufacturing plant based in the MM2100 industrial estate in West Cikarang, Bekasi.

According to Bayu, his company carried out efficiency measures by laying off employees in three phases.  

'€œI was part of the first phase, in which as many as 115 employees were sent home in September,'€ he said.

PT J.S.T Indonesia, where Bayu worked, has been conducting a program it calls voluntary early retirement. Bayu explained that despite being labeled '€œvoluntary'€, the retirement program had actually swept out employees at all levels and positions, from junior to top managerial positions.

The company carried out the program'€™s first two phases in September and October and this month will see the third phase.

Bayu said, however, that his company had complied with labor regulations, saying that he had received a total of Rp 114 million (US$8,089) in severance pay.

'€œWhat I'€™m thinking right now is that I will use part of the money to run a wholesale snack business with my friends who have also lost their jobs,'€ he said.

Bayu recently bought a consignment of sample packages of specialty snacks from Malang, East Java, such as fruit chips and tempeh chips.

The country'€™s economic slowdown has affected many local companies as demand for their products has been declining. For labor-intensive industries, sending employees home or reducing overtime has so far been the most common solutions to reduce production costs.

Non-oil and gas industry grew by 5.21 percent in the third quarter of this year, lower than the 5.73 percent in the third quarter of 2014, according to data from the Industry Ministry.

The textile and garment industry suffered the most, contracting by minus 6.14 percent in the third quarter of this year, compared with 1.38 percent growth in the same period last year.

Dahlan Djafar, who works at the Ejip industrial area in Bekasi regency, said being laid-off was an unpredictable phenomenon for most contract workers, who only have a secondary education.  

'€œIt is something that can happen to any of us. This month it was my friend, but later on it could be me or any other friends,'€ he said.

In fact, lay-offs could be caused by a combination of factors, such as companies'€™ mismanagement or the workers themselves, in addition to the economic slowdown, he went on.

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) executive director Enny Sri Hartati said she was pessimistic that layoffs could be avoided this quarter as the country'€™s economic growth was likely to remain sluggish amid external and internal pressures.

Indonesia'€™s economic growth hit a six-year low of around 4.7 percent as of the third quarter of this year, with the growth in the fourth quarter forecast to remain the same.

However, Industry Ministry secretary-general Syarif Hidayat said recently that he was optimistic that major layoffs could be avoided in the fourth quarter of this year as industry was expected to grow by above the rate of economic growth, hitting the same level as the previous quarter of 5.2 percent.