Said Iqbal Affirms Sritex Employee Layoffs Due To Mismanagement, Declares Ready To Help Advocacy

Photo: Doc. Sritex

JAKARTA - The collapse of Sritex as one of the pillars of the textile industry received attention from the President of KSPI who is also the President of the Labor Party, Said Iqbal. He emphasized that the collapse of the textile industry in Indonesia was not caused by an increase in the minimum wage, but by a decrease in purchasing power and imports of products from China.

Iqbal considered the bankruptcy case of PT. Sritex is a clear example of poor management and failure to implement a debt restructuring agreement (homologation), not due to an increase in labor wages.

According to Iqbal, the main factor that has caused the collapse of the textile industry is that purchasing power continues to decline due to inadequate wage policies over the past three years, especially since the implementation of the Omnibus Law.

"The workers' wages did not increase or even below the inflation rate, causing purchasing power to decrease and trigger deflation," explained Iqbal in a written statement received by VOI, October 27. In addition, uncontrolled import policies have also exacerbated the situation of the national textile industry.

In the case of PT. Sritex, Iqbal explained that the company was bankrupted by the Semarang Commercial Court after failing to pay debts. However, the cause of this bankruptcy has nothing to do with wage increases, but Sritex's failure to fulfill the homologation agreement for 12 years. "Palilit Sritex is not due to an increase in wages. Wages in Sritex are even the lowest in the world," said Iqbal.

KSPI and the Labor Party have formed the Orange Command Post to advocate for thousands of Sritex employees in Sukoharjo and Semarang. This advocacy includes several important steps.

First, KSPI urges the Sukoharjo Manpower Office and other agencies to refuse layoffs proposed by Sritex, because this bankruptcy is caused by mismanagement, not by labor issues.

Second, employees who are threatened with layoffs must still get wages, and thirdly, if there is no work, employees are laid off while still receiving wages according to applicable regulations.

Meanwhile, fourthly, the government is also expected to intervene in the cassation process at the Supreme Court to cancel Sritex's bankruptcy. In addition, the government needs to provide a bailout of as much as possible to settle Sritex's debt.

Iqbal emphasized that this step does not need to involve many ministers, only one official who is able to act quickly to resolve this problem.

"If the government does not take immediate action, KSPI and the Labor Party are ready to go directly to help Sritex employees," he continued.

KSPI also criticized the government for continuing to repeat the narrative that wage increases would lead to layoffs. "This is a classic reason that does not side with workers. We still demand an increase in the minimum wage of 8-10% without using PP Number 51 of 2023," concluded Iqbal.