Hermawan Sulistyo, a political and military researcher from LIPI who represented LIPI’s employees at the rally, claimed that the reorganization was carried out arbitrarily, highlighting that some employees were transferred to other departments without prior assessment.

“All of our contract workers are being laid off without replacements being provided to fill the vacant positions,” Hermawan said, lamenting the absence of the contract workers, who he said were very helpful to researchers.

Hermawan further claimed that a source had told him the layoffs were done for budgetary efficiency.

“We already delivered our complaints to the House of Representatives and the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry. The Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister said he will send someone to talk about this,” he added.

Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Syafruddin decided on Monday to step in, saying the ministry would form a team to assist with mediation.

The team is to comprise representatives from the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry, the National Civil Service Agency and LIPI.

“It has come to my attention that there is a misunderstanding between the chairman and the staff that needs to be sorted out as soon as possible,” he said as quoted by Antara.

LIPI chairman Laksamana Tri Handoko had previously announced that the institution would be reorganized, citing management reforms and the improvement of the institute’s competence as among the main goals of the move. 

“Through the reorganization, we aimed to reform the institute’s supporting business sector to reduce the researchers’ clerical burdens,” Handoko said in a written statement.

However, the decision was met with resistance by the workers, who turned to the House to express their grievances over and disagreement with it.

During the meeting with lawmakers, the researchers demanded Handoko call a halt to the reorganization and form an evaluation team consisting of research division deputies to assess it. They also demanded to be involved in a review to draw up a clear road map for LIPI.

The meeting, however, ended in deadlock after Handoko refused to accept the first and the last points, saying that some of the researchers and workers had already been assigned to new positions.

He argued that the restructuring was designed for the sake of the organization.

“If we succeed, we will be able to improve our human resources and increase our budget at the same time. This [should be] done to boost our research productivity, as well as our service to the public,” he said.

“We also hope that every party who is involved will prioritize dialogue and follow the existing regulation so that we can build a better working environment,” he added.

In a concession to the researchers, Handoko said he would establish a team to evaluate the reorganization. 

“However, we will continue the process,” he said.

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