Budget Efficiency, Garuda Indonesia Offers 400 Employees Early Retirement

Garuda Indonesia aircraft. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Reducing salaries from the board of directors and commissioners to company staff is one of the efficiency measures taken by PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy has been in place since April.

Apart from that, this state-owned airline company is also taking other steps in order to improve efficiency in the employee budget post. One of them is the early retirement offer given to employees over 45 years of age.

President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfaniaputra, said that hundreds of employees have applied for early retirement. These employees accepted this offer because the company's financial condition was no longer healthy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We also offer early retirement. Alhamdulillah, there are more than 400 who took it," he said, in Jakarta, Friday, July 24.

Irfan emphasized that in times of crisis due to pandemic pressure, the choice of termination of employment (PHK) is the last resort made by companies.

Not only that, Garuda Indonesia also voluntarily offered contract employees to be laid off. Irfan said that his party also did not extend the contract. Some even had their contracts expedited.

According to Irfan, this condition occurred because the passenger flight business had decreased by 90 percent. So that to save Garuda from bankruptcy only passengers. Because the injection of funds from the government is only temporary.

"It is the passengers who can save Garuda. The government funds are temporary. What ensures that Garuda can recover are passengers," he explained.

On the other hand, Irfan admitted that he was surprised because his party was the only state-owned company that had cut salaries to the level of commissioners and directors. In fact, until now, various other state-owned enterprises (BUMN) have not taken similar steps.

"Garuda is the only state-owned company that has cut wages. I am also surprised that other SOEs have not followed suit. But, maybe they are in fine condition, I don't know," he said.