Aerofood Catering Company Of Garuda Indonesia Lays 152 People, Employee Union: Decision Is Made Unilateral, Ignoring Mr. Jokowi's Directions

JAKARTA - PT Aerofood Indonesia, the catering company of Garuda Indonesia, has reportedly laid off 152 employees. The news was revealed from a letter of rejection of layoffs submitted by the ACS Prosperous Employees Union to the President Director of Aerofod Indonesia, I Wayan Susena.

For your information, Aerofood Indonesia is a business line of PT Aero Wisata which is a subsidiary of PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. Aerofood uses a brand with the name Aerofood ACS. This company provides Indonesian aviation food services. Aerofood's business scope includes in-flight catering service, in-flight logistics industrial service, and commercial service.

In the letter of objection, the Chairman of the ACS Prosperous Employees Union, Agus Sulistiyo, claimed that Aerofood had made a unilateral layoff. Agus said the management took this attitude without an agreement with the union.

"That the decision to lay off was made unilaterally and without any agreement with us, the management of the ACS Sekar Sejahtera Workers Union," Agus said, quoted from Antara, July 27.

Agus also said that the unilateral dismissal decision made by the management is clearly against the law and this has created disharmonious industrial relations. In fact, employees become restless and uneasy at work.

Then, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi)'s statement regarding the ban on layoffs also became the basis for the ACS Prosperous Employees Union to criticize Aerofood Indonesia's management.

"However, the fact is that currently, the management of PT Aerofood Indonesia as a subsidiary of PT Garuda Indonesia is actually doing layoffs unilaterally. The actions of the management of PT Aerofood Indonesia clearly ignore the direction of President Jokowi," he said.

It was also explained that in the current condition of the Indonesian economy which has started to grow and is followed by the trend of commercial flight growth approaching normal, then the management of PT Aerofood Indonesia should concentrate more on efforts to develop business opportunities that are already wide open and not busy doing unilateral layoffs.

Because of that, said Agus, the ACS Prosperous Employees Union objected and rejected the decision to layoffs that violated the law.

"We ask the management to cancel all layoff decrees that have been issued. We also ask management to re-employ all employees who have been laid off, according to Agus as stated in the letter, quoted Wednesday, July 27. In their respective positions," he said.