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group claiming to represent hundreds of dismissed employees of media conglomerate PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNC) filed on Wednesday a complaint with the Manpower Ministry.

Gilbert, a representative for the former employees, said MNC had dismissed at least 300 employees without going through the necessary procedures stipulated by the 2003 Manpower Law.

“We call this a one-party termination as the dismissal letters were sent on June 22, just a few days before Idul Fitri via JNE [a courier service] to our houses. We didn’t get any notice prior to it. This isn’t professional,” the former editor of Genie tabloid said after a meeting with ministry officials.

Article 151 of the 2003 Manpower Law stipulates that termination should be conducted via a discussion between the firm’s management and the employees’ union.

MNC Group, owned by tycoon-cum-politician Hary Tanoesoedibjo, however, only held one-on-one communication with the dismissed staff and never discussed the move with any union, Independent Media Union Federation (FSPMI) chairman Sasmito Madrim claimed.

Hary is the the founder and chairman of the Indonesia Unity Party (Perindo).

The 300 dismissed reporters, editors, photographers and staffers include 40 former employees of tabloids Genie and Mom and Kiddie, operated under PT Media Nusantara Informasi Genie, eight from iNews TV, 90 from MNC Channel and the remainder from the Koran Sindo paper, which is operated by PT Media Nusantara Informasi.

Koran Sindo dismissed scores of employees from seven regional news bureaus, namely in North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Central Java and Yogyakarta, East Java, West Java, South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi. The paper is still in circulation.

Genie and Mom and Kiddie stopped paper publication this month and the management, according to the federation, only notified employees of its decision on June 2.

The case with iNews TV, meanwhile, has been ongoing for two years, when the firm was reported to reassign and eventually dismiss eight former staffers without a clear reason for doing so after they formed a union.

MNC is reported to have offered compensation to the affected employees, but the employees deem the amount to be insufficient and without a coherent underpinning.

“When we asked for the basis of the calculation, they just told us it was already ‘management policy’. No clear calculation was given,” Gilbert said.

Article 163 of the Manpower Law stipulates that firms undertaking efficiency measures should give a two-month salary, compensation according to the working period (UPMK) and an employee rights replacement payment (UPH).

Bankrupt firms, meanwhile, pay a smaller amount, with only a one-month salary, UPMK and UPH.

The statuses of MNC’s subsidiaries, meanwhile, have not yet been determined by any authorized institutions, leaving dismissed employees waiting for an explanation from management.

The Manpower Ministry’s director for industrial disputes settlement, John Daniel Saragih, meanwhile, regretted the absence of MNC management during the submission of the complaint.

“We sent an invitation to the MNC management two days ago [on Monday] but they didn’t come today,” he told reporters.

MNC has not responded to The Jakarta Post’s request for a comment.

Indonesia saw newspaper publications shrink to 98 from 101 in the 2015-2016 period and magazine and tabloid publications fall to 120 from 132, Nielsen data shows.

In the first quarter of this year, MNC saw revenues increase by 6.67 percent to Rp 1.6 trillion (US$120 million), but profits fall by 14.4 percent to Rp 419 billion.