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Heading to Idul Fitri, Palm Oil Plantation Companies Should Pay Holiday Allowance to Their Labors



Heading to Idul Fitri, Palm Oil Plantation Companies Should Pay Holiday Allowance to Their Labors

InfoSAWIT, BOGOR - Tunjangan Hari Raya (THR) or holiday allowance is the normative rights for the labors that palm oil plantation companies always ignore to pay. Though it is officially regulated, the allowance would not be automatically gotten by the labors. Many companies for many excuses do not pay the allowance for the labors. In palm oil plantation companies, non-permanent work status is the reason not to pay the allowance.

Executive Director of Sawit Watch, Achmad Surambo said, the government should confirm that every labor should get holiday allowance with no exception. “We urge that the government confirm that every labor that works at palm oil plantation should get holiday allowance without differentiating work status. The government should not only establish the posts for the labors to complain but also make sure that they got allowance. The government should deliver firm sanctions for the companies that do not pay the labors’ allowance,” he said, as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT.

From what Sawit Watch knew in many palm oil plantation regions, non-permanent status is the reason for the companies not to give allowance for the freelance.

“We knew from palm oil plantation labors in Central Kalimantan, Bengkulu, North Kalimantan, the freelance does not get holiday allowance as what the government regulated. The freelance works as the state labor for the companies’ interests but they do not get allowance. They just got regular parcels. In one palm oil plantation in Bengkulu, some freelancers do not get allowance because of their status and work at plasma plantation. In palm oil plantations in Musi Rawas, the allowance for the new freelancers was paid five days before Idul Fitri,” the labor specialist of Sawit Watch, Zidane said.

The companies that do not give holiday allowance or change it by parcels are categorized as violation. Some plantation companies in Central Kalimantan just gave regular parcel to the freelancers. It means, the profits that many companies got for all these years never guarantee the labors’ rights.

“The allowance was given to state labors while the freelances got parcels, such as, syrup, canned bread, sugar, tea. If they are calculated, not more than Rp 300 thousand. The regulation clearly regulated that holiday allowance is the labors’ normative rights, including the freelance. There is no regulation confirming that holiday allowance can be substituted by regular parcels. The government should evaluate and deliver sanction to the companies that do not fulfill the obligation or substitute it by parcels,” Secretary of SEPASI Central Kalimantan, Dianto Arifin said. (T2)


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