A

strike by hundreds of workers from PT Amtek Engineering, an Apple subcontractor, has continued into its fourth day with no sign of ending, leading the company to reportedly cancel the US$20 million expansion of its factory in Batam.

Eleven city councilors met with both the company management and the workers on Thursday, asking the employees to stop the strike, which had been triggered by the company'€™s name change.

'€œThere has not yet been any decision, but we asked the workers to resume work on Friday,'€ said Councilor Uba Ingan Sigalingging.

The workers rejected the change of name and have demanded that the Singaporean company dismiss them and provide severance payment.

Article 163 of Law No. 35/2014 on manpower states that, regarding corporate actions such as a change of name or a merger, a severance allowance is to be provided if the employers or employees decide to end the working relationship.

The deputy chairman of the All-Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI) PT Amtek working unit, Tahan Simanjuntak, said that there had been no agreement reached between the workers and the company.

'€œThe strike will continue until our demand for severance allowance has been fulfilled,'€ Tahan said.

Marlen Turnip, another protester, said the workers were demanding that the company comply with the law obliging it to provide a severance allowance to its workers due to the change in company name, by dismissing them first.

Once they were dismissed, he said, it would be okay for them to go back to work with a zero service period or not be reemployed at all.

'€œWhat is important is that we receive the severance allowance and get clarity after the change to the company name,'€ said Marlen who has worked at the factory since 2004.

He said the strike was initiated by workers who had worked with the company for over 10 years. Calling for dismissal and the severance allowance were the main reasons for the strike, he added.

Meanwhile, the Batam Free Trade Zone Authority (BPK FTZ) spokesperson, Purnomo Andiantono, revealed that the chief executive officer of Amtek Holding Company, based in Singapore, had decided to cancel the factory expansion, which had initially been scheduled to begin at the beginning of this year.

'€œThanks to the deadlock caused by this worker problem, the management have made the decision to cancel the expansion,'€ Purnomo told The Jakarta Post, on Tueday.

He said that the company had also made the decision to move their factory from Batam to Vietnam if the problem was not settled within two weeks.

'€œA strike of that long is the same as the company stopping operation, in other words, closing down,'€ he said.

The workers had said earlier that the company'€™s threat to move the factory to Vietnam was just a bluff.

Purnomo said it was deplorable that the workers were demanding to be dismissed in order to receive a severance allowance from the company but wanted to be re-employed.

The company'€™s management had committed to recognize their service period although it would change its name into Interplex, the name of the US-based company which was taken over by PT Amtek in July 2015, he added.

PT Amtek became a sub-contractor for Apple as a result of the takeover.

Meanwhile, PT Amtek Engineering human resources executive in Batam, Cucu Eva Lestari, said that no further meeting between the company and the workers'€™ association or its representatives had been made.

'€œThat'€™s all that I can say,'€ Cucu told the Post.