The three former workers, who represented other laid-off workers of the Papua Province-based gold and copper miner, were Jerry Yarangga, leader of PTFI's ex-employees; Stefen Yawan, ex-dump truck operator; and Oktoia Yeimo, former engine operator.
According to Yarangga, they were received by Jokowi when he and his two colleagues reported to the president about the inhumane treatment of laid-off workers by the PTFI management.
Therefore, they begged the president to grant them justice by encouraging the mining company`s management to address its employees' normative rights and re-recruit them, so that they can work again, he stated.
"We have urged Mr. President to take stern actions in response to the violation of employment-related norms by the company," Yarangga noted, adding that PTFI might have imposed policies that do not exist in Indonesia's legal rules.
Yarangga and his colleagues have been staying in a tent that they set up not far from the State Palace for the past nine days.
Their presence in Jakarta is aimed at fighting for justice and their normative rights after being laid off by PTFI, a mining company that explores for ore containing copper, gold, and silver in the Grasberg minerals district in Papua Province.
PTFI, which employs around 30 thousand people, was quoted in its official website as saying that it would "ramp up production from two new large-scale, high-grade underground mines" over the next two years.
"We expect production in the Grasberg district to be double the 2019 levels by 2021," CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) Richard Adkerson was quoted as saying.
Reporting by Agus Salim, Rahmad Nasution
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
