Batam investors gone, factory workers hanging

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam

Batam authorities said they have been unable to locate four foreign investors who have left the island and locked-up their businesses in the industrial estate, leaving more than 2,000 workers in uncertainty.

Their employees have filed complaints with local authorities, including the manpower and transmigration ministry office and the municipal legislative council.

They have asked for help to mediate the problem, but so far no positive response has been given.

PT Livatech Electronic and PT Polestar Plastic are the two foreign companies owned by Malaysian and Singaporean investors.

The companies locked out some 1,700 workers for unspecified reasons last month and this week.

The employees have several times staged massive rallies on the industrial estate to demand severance and service payments but they have to-date not met with management.

Chief of the Batam Industrial Development Authority Mustofa Wijaya said he had not received any reports on the two companies' lock-out.

Chief of the local manpower and transmigration office Rudy Syakirti said he had enhanced coordination efforts with the Batam authority, the local immigration office and the local police.

But he said the whereabouts of the two companies' owners, who are Malaysian and Singaporean citizens, have yet to be detected.

"We have never been asked to mediate the industrial disputes between the two companies and their workers," he said.

He said the two companies were locked out possibly because of the decreasing foreign orders, the hike in the monthly minimum wage and the high-cost economy.

In 2002, two other companies PT Singacom and PT Singamip which employed more than 480 workers were locked out and its Singaporean investors escaped obligations to pay severance payments and suspended monthly wages to their workers.

The recent exit of many companies from Batam and Bintan has affected the investment program despite the recent implementation of the free trade zone covering Bintan, Batam and Galang islands.

Rudy said employees had a right to receive severance and service payments if they were dismissed.

He said he would bring the lock-out cases to court to settle the labor problems.

"If the companies are declaring bankruptcy, their assets could be sold to pay the severance and service payments," he said.

Edwin Haryono, chairman of the local chapter of the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI), called on the government and local authorities to be more selective in giving investment permits to foreign investors to prevent such cases.

"We don't know until when the workers will have to wait for word about their fate," Edwin said.

"We have a harsh labor law but it is found to be toothless."

He said Livatec was owned by Singapore's Goh Singhing, alias Jackson Goh, who was believed to have escaped before his factory stopped operation last month.