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Another company flees Batam, abandons 1,025 workers

Ghim Li failed to pay the workers their wages on Aug. 7 before the entire management team abandoned the workers.

Fadli (The Jakarta Post)
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Batam
Fri, September 18, 2026

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PT Ghim Li Indonesia's workers, who have been abandoned by the management, lie down in the company's factory on Monday to safeguard company assets, such as sewing machines, at the factory's Sewing Department in the Tunas Industrial Area, Batam city in Riau Islands. The Ghim Li management team abandoned the workers after failing to pay August wages. PT Ghim Li Indonesia's workers, who have been abandoned by the management, lie down in the company's factory on Monday to safeguard company assets, such as sewing machines, at the factory's Sewing Department in the Tunas Industrial Area, Batam city in Riau Islands. The Ghim Li management team abandoned the workers after failing to pay August wages. (Courtesy of FPMSI Batam/-)

A

nother workers’ abandonment case by a foreign investment company occurred in Batam, Riau Islands after the management team of garment factory PT Ghim Li suddenly deserted their posts and left behind 1,025 workers.

The workers stormed the Batam City Council building on Friday to demand their rights after the company halted its production in early August.

Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers’ Union (FSPMI) Riau Islands chapter Chairman Suprapto said that such an abandonment pattern was not new in Batam. In the past 13 years, at least six companies took similar abandonment steps, stopping production before the boards of directors and management teams left the companies.

He said that the Ghim Li case started when the workers’ payday, which should have been on Aug. 7, was delayed. The workers’ suspicions were strengthened after it was confirmed that the company leadership had left Batam without any operational clarity.

“The wages, usually paid on the seventh day [of the month], were not paid. It was confirmed that the general manager and management team have left Batam,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

“The factory has now been abandoned just like that without any clarity on its operational status.”

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Suprapto said Ghim Li’s products were not marketed inside Indonesia. The factory’s job was sewing clothes for brands like Adidas.

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Another company flees Batam, abandons 1,025 workers

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  • Palmerat Barat No. 142-143
  • Central Jakarta
  • DKI Jakarta
  • Indonesia
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