global,economy,crisis,unemployment, Victims of the Crisis VHRmedia.com

Prasetyo has never thought that the fall of Wall Street stock market in America will smash his f source of income which his family depends on. He never believes that dropping price of stock market that values up to billion dollars, which happened very far away from where he lives, had caused him losing his job.

 

Early December, Prasetyo was officially fired from PT Kem Farm Indonesia in Semarang, the company he worked for. Formerly, this agriculture exporting company would only lay-off its thousands employees. He still had hopes at that time, although he would only receive a half of his salary.

 

But lately, the top managers claimed that the company is sold to a new investor from Taiwan. Workers are asked to choose whether to resign and receive severance payment or keep working in uncertainty under the new management. “It seems that they forced us to choose the first, so we finally resigned,” Prasetyo says.

 

Prasetyo and other thousands workers received 10 millions rupiah as the severance payment. With that money, Prasetyo plans to leave a house that he and other workers had rent for several years. Prasetyo will take Amy, his wife, and Divitri Aulia, his daughter, who will be going to school next year, to start a new life as a breeder at his hometown, Temanggung.

 

“I am old already and have no particular skill, so it will be better to live at my hometown. I am probably not that smart but I had worked as a farmer and breeder once, at least I have a little bit experience,” Prasetyo says.

 

Having quite similar fate, Sularjo, who works for a furniture factory and handicraft industry as varnishing and painting man, admitted that he has been laid-oof for two weeks. His employer, who owns a big gallery on Jalan Imogiri Barat, Bantul, Yogyakarta, has laid-off Sularjo and other tens of his workers because the handicraft products have not yet been sold for two months. Furniture orders from abroad are canceled and the stocks are still stored in the ware house.

 

The handicraft business which its main market target is in America and Europe received the biggest affect from this economy crisis. The slack of economy in the destination countries has also caused the slack of marketing. People are tightening their expenses and stop their desire to buy tertiary goods.

 

Although they are only paid for 450 thousand rupiah per month plus meal allowance for five thousand rupiah per day, Sularjo admitted that he still can fulfill his family’s needs. “The average wage for furnishing and oven-painting worker is only that much. Probably, it will be higher in town. I heard that the staff (management staff) is paid for 600 thousand rupiah. They are SMEA (kind of vocational school) and SMA (senior high school) graduated,” Sularjo says.

Unlike the usual mechanism for lay-off payment in big companies, the gallery did not pay the basic salary for its workers during the lay-off. Sularjo was only “given” a promise that he would be asked to work for the gallery again when the order is loud. “I felt so reluctant to protest. The Madam (his employer) said that there sale has not been good in last two months. She probably has no money to pay the workers’ salary,” he says.

When the economy crisis strikes the world at the end of 2008, the impact had not yet effected most of business doers in Indonesia. Numbers of economy observers even believed that the crisis would not be strong enough to shake the state’s economy this time.

 

But, only five months after the crisis smashed stock markets in America and Europe, in early November thousands workers that had been laid-off previously, were fired at last. The Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Erman Suparno said that there have been 23,927 workers lost their jobs since the beginning of the crisis until November 2008. “This number will be monitored until November 2008,” he says.

 

Commerce and Industry Agency (Disperindag) of Banten Province noted since the global economy crisis strikes, 11 thousand workers have been laid-off. The Head of Banten Province Disperindag Hudaya said that the number would probably increase next year. “Many industries have complained. It is very hard to survive these days.”

 

The workers are always put on the weak position, and it has made them be the first victim as the company has to deal with the crisis. This situation is highlighted by the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) as a serious issue this year. The LBH admitted that it has received 185 workers dispute cases with 10,176 victims. Most of the cases that the LBH had been handling are related to lay-offs that were not agreed by the workers.

The legalization of the Bill 2/2004 on Industrial Relation Disagreement Settlement (PPHI) actually omits the government responsibility in guarantying a better life for its citizens. “Indeed, the government allows the workers and the entrepreneurs to fight, while the position between worker and company is not balance. On the labor context, the government shall give a protection for the worker,” Hermawanto, the lawyer of Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, says.

The New Year triumphant seemed not sound sonorously this year. The fire work which will be burnt in the town’s prosperity center will not shine brightly. All will be dreary. Everybody worries and hopes that the Wall Street stock market will rise again, while we are counting the numbers of victims who had been stricken by the crisis. (E1)