The Subordinate Of KFC Indonesia's Boss, Ricardo Gelael, Explains Why He Has Delayed Employee Salaries

JAKARTA - The manager of KFC Indonesia outlets, PT Fast Food Indonesia Tbk stated that they no longer postpone their employees' salaries as of April 2021. Director of Fast Food Indonesia Dalimin Juwono said that along with the company's revenue improvement, the postponement of salaries that had been in effect since the beginning of COVID-19 last year had improved no longer valid since April 2021.

"The company seeks to immediately return the postponement of employee salaries after seeing an increase in income", Dalimin's statement was quoted as saying on the information disclosure page of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), Thursday, April 29.

The company, which is owned by the father of racer Sean Gelael, Ricardo Gelael, recorded Rp123 billion in other debts to employees as of September 2020. Dalimin said the issuer's debt, codenamed FAST, consists of employees' salaries whose payments have been postponed since April 2020.

Employees who experience salary delays are permanent and contract workers. The deferred salary consists of the base salary and any allowance wages.

In fact, at the same time, KFC Indonesia still had cash and cash equivalents of IDR 547.19 billion. However, most or 74.88 percent of the liquidity was instead placed in short-term deposits and only 1.32 percent of IDR 7.22 billion was in cash balances.

Dalimin argued that the portion was arranged to get interest benefits while still getting easy cash disbursements when the company needed operational funds.

"The company cannot predict when the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic situation will be improved. The company strives to keep cash and cash equivalents from falling every month without being balanced by an increase in income", Dalimin explained.

In 2020, the company whose shares are owned by conglomerate Anthony Salim closed 44 stores, 11 of which were permanently closed and the rest temporarily closed. The decline in income is inevitable due to the increasing frequency of eating onsite during the pandemic.

About the demonstration by KFC Indonesia workers recently, Dalimin said that his party has carried out a dialogue that is still ongoing to this day.

"The company carries out all obligations in dialogue and bipartite in 2020. Starting from April 2021, the company has implemented better policies compared to dialogue and bipartite in 2020", said Dalimin.