He said not only Freeport workers but also local community members especially the six tribes living in the Timika region had experienced injustices and not enjoyed any welfare.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A non-governmental organization (NGO) here has urged the government to conduct an audit on PT Freeport Indonesia`s finances in connection with the company`s failure to care for the welfare of its employees and local community members.

"I recommend an immediate audit of PT Freeport Indonesia by a presidential team or a team from the House of Representatives (DPR) as this problem is very serious in view of the number of employees that reaches 22,000 excluding their family members that reach tens of thousands. My proposal is to set up a special committee to ensure the serious handling of the problem," the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Hariz Azhar, said here on Monday.

He said not only Freeport workers but also local community members especially the six tribes living in the Timika region had experienced injustices and not enjoyed any welfare.

Therefore, he said an "extraordinary" team needed to be set up to evaluate and find out why PT Freeport Indonesia had failed to improve its workers welfare and to meet its social corporate responsibility obligations.

He said the team was also expected to be able to determine why security authorities had failed to unveil the many shooting incidents that had happened in the region and caused insecurity among the local people as well as Freeport workers.

The team should also be able to ascertain whether Freeport had paid been paying its taxes properly considering that convicted tax man Gayus Tambunan had mentioned the company`s name in his case.

"That must be uncovered and the investigation must be continued," he said.

The Freeport case has happened many times raising a question if the government really wants to settle it, he said.

"Seeing the sheer number of its workers and their family members this is a national problem, a patriotism problem. So if the government wants to prove its nationalism, support the workers," he said.

He said if it is PT Freeport that the government supports it will be the government that is anti-nationalist," he said.

Kontras along with TLBHI and the Cooperation Forum of Papua Non-Governmental Organizations had earlier condemned PT Freeport for having used the police as a shield against its own workers.

It also criticized the company for refusing to sign a new collective labor agreement with the workers and also ridiculed the police for giving an ultimatum to the workers to stop their strike.

He said the strike was called because the workers wished to improve their welfare by changing provisions in the collective labor agreement including raising their wages, YLBHI deputy chairman Alvon Kurnia Palma said.

Based on Law Number 21 of 2000 labor unions have the right to conclude collective labor agreements with employers and Article 27 states labor unions are obliged to protect and defend their members from human rights violations and fight in their interest and the welfare of their members and families.

Alvon said the profits made by the company had been very huge while only a small part of it had been given to the workers. In view of that it was logical that the workers had asked for a raise.

The Mimika police chief, Deny Edward Siregar, had ordered the Freeport workers to stop their strike at Check Point I at Mile 28, Mile 27 and Gorong-gorong in Timika and open access so far blocked by the workers.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011