Alleged Illegal Layoff of Thousands of Sritex Employees Not Through Bipartite and Tripartite, Labour Party Says

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The President of the Labour Party, Said Iqbal, believes that the termination of employment of thousands of PT Sri Rejeki Isman Tbk or Sritex employees is illegal and in violation of the law. Said stated this while representing his position as the President of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI). "The Labour Party and KSPI state that the layoffs of 8,400 Sritex employees are illegal and contrary to the Law," said Said during a virtual press conference on Sunday, March 2, 2025.

According to Said, the layoffs of Sritex employees violate the Manpower Law, both as regulated in Law Number 6 of 2023 concerning Job Creation and Law Number 13 of 2003 concerning Manpower. Said explained several reasons why the layoffs by Sritex should be categorized as illegal. Firstly, Said questioned the mechanism of the layoffs of thousands of Sritex employees that were not preceded by bipartite and tripartite negotiations.

Said suspected that the Sritex management did not negotiate with the workers when deciding to terminate the employment. He questioned the minutes of the negotiation if there were any. Regarding the tripartite mechanism, Said also pointed out the lack of involvement of the Department of Manpower of Sukoharjo Regency during the layoff process. "In the decision of the Constitutional Court, the layoff mechanism starts with bipartite negotiations."

Said claimed that the company requested each individual worker to register for the layoff. However, according to him, there is no mass layoff that goes through a self-registration mechanism. Therefore, he suspected that there might have been intimidation if thousands of workers immediately agreed to be laid off without a bipartite or tripartite mechanism. "Or the employees were duped into agreeing without being informed about the layoff mechanism," he said.

The second reason mentioned by Said underlies the suspicion of illegal layoffs is the lack of space for the workers to refuse to be laid off. From his observation, Said assessed that former Sritex employees were mostly obedient to the layoff decision. However, according to Said, if even one person refuses the layoff, it cannot be considered an agreement.

He demanded that evidence of good bipartite and tripartite negotiations between the former employees and the Sritex company be disclosed to ensure that a fair agreement has been reached. Consequently, Said believes that the workers who have lost their jobs should have certainty about severance pay, job loss insurance, and old age insurance.

Therefore, Said stated that he would open an advocacy post in front of the Sritex factory to protect the rights of the workers. 'The post will accommodate workers who disagree with the layoffs, disagree with the amount of severance pay and other rights,' he said.

Previously, the Head of the Industry and Manpower Agency of Sukoharjo Regency, Sumarno, stated that Sritex employees stopped working starting from March 1, 2025. Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Sritex Group Workers' Union, Slamet Kaswanto, confirmed the total number of Sritex employees and workers who lost their jobs due to the bankruptcy decision, from January to February 26, 2025, amounted to 10,665 people.

The number is from four companies under the Sritex Group, namely PT Sritex Sukoharjo, PT Bitratex Semarang, PT Sinar Panja Jaya Semarang, and PT Primayuda Boyolali. The four companies under the Sritex Group were declared bankrupt by the Commercial Court of Semarang due to failure to pay off debts to creditors. The bankruptcy verdict was issued after their supplier, PT Indo Bharat Rayon, sued Sritex for non-payment of debts.

The total debt of Sritex at that time reached Rp26.02 trillion. Their debt to Indo Bharat alone was only Rp101.31 billion as of June 2024 or 0.38 percent. However, the delay in repaying the debt had fatal consequences after the company reached a homologation with the creditors, which automatically led them to bankruptcy. Sritex contested the verdict by seeking an appeal. The Supreme Court rejected Sritex's cassation request on December 18, 2024.

Adil Al Hasan contributed to this article.

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