KFC Lays Off, Ministry Of Manpower Opens Voice

KFC (Photo: Antara)

The Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker) has opened its voice regarding the termination of employment (PHK) carried out by PT Fastfood Indonesia Tbk (FAST) or the one operating the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet.

The Minister of Manpower, Yassierli, said that the government always strives so that there is no termination of employment (PHK) and is currently waiting for reports related to the situation and examining this matter further.

"We always try not to lay off. Later we will see this I am listening to, waiting for the report," he told the media crew, after the first quarter 2025 economic growth acceleration meeting, Thursday, February 27.

However, Yassierli explained that it could not be ascertained regarding the absence of layoffs, because according to law, this step was the last taken by the company, and his party would examine this further.

"Legally, the company used the layoffs as the last step, so we want to check it," he said.

Previously, the PT Fastfood Indonesia Tbk Struggle Union. (SP-KFC) revealed KFC Indonesia's arrogance and discrimination, as well as allegations of anti-union against SP-KFC-KASBI members and administrators in making decisions to layoffs on their part.

Unilateral layoffs are carried out with arrogance, without communication with the union management and without deliberation according to the Constitutional Court Decision No. 168/PUU-XXI/2023.

The unilateral layoff decision was also carried out with Discrimination, namely the mutation of KFC staff workers, in fact the majority of other union members, namely SP.FFI and finally dismissed due to our demands and complaints at the East Java Province Manpower Office and KOMNAS HAM.

However, the latest thing happened in another store, namely KFC Box Manggarai Jakarta, which closed the shop, can be transferred to other stores. This contradicts what was conveyed by KFC in the Tripartite Mediation Forum of the Surabaya City Manpower Office, which conveyed that all were laid off when the KFC store closed permanently.

The matter of discrimination has violated Law 13 of 2003 articles 5 and 6 in conjunction with Article 190 paragraph 1 and Law No. 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights Article 38 and Article 39.

In addition, the layoffs carried out by KFC were layoffs for reasons of loss and with a value of 0.5x severance pay.

This contradicts the Constitutional Court's decision no.19/PUU-IX/2011 on June 20, 2012. This means that layoffs at KFC cannot use these reasons above, because in fact there are still many KFC stores that are open/operational throughout Indonesia.

That the unilateral layoffs should have been laid off previously, this is in accordance with PKB KFC article 29 paragraph 1, where the substance is that workers who close stores are laid off for 3 months with full wage rights of 100 percent.

The new KFC PKB is effective as of January 1, 2024, but unfortunately it was violated by the KFC itself.

KFC also ignores the rights of workers who have been laid off unilaterally, that KFC pays BPJS contributions (last December 2024), but deliberately does not pay the wage rights of its workers who are still in the dispute process from September 2024 until now (according to the Constitutional Court's decision No.37/PPU-XI/2011 dated September 19, 2011).