Merpati Former Pilot And Air Employees Charge IDR 312 Billion Severance Pay: "It's Been Seven Years Just A Promise, Please Help Us Mr. Erick Thohir"

Merpati Plane. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Hundreds of former pilots and employees of PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines urged the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir to pay a severance pay debt of IDR 312 billion which has not been paid since the state-owned airline closed in 2014.

The total bill of IDR 312 billion is the accumulation of the severance pay of 1,233 former pilots and employees of Merpati Air.

The urging was conveyed when hundreds of former Merpati Air pilots and employees visited the PT Perusahaan Pengelola Asset (PPA) office as the person in charge of resolving Merpati Air's financial problems, on Tuesday, April 12.

"Please, Minister (SOE), don't hang on to us anymore. For seven years we have only been given promises. That's our right," said the former Merpati Air pilot, Arief Kemaluddin, in an official statement, Wednesday, April 13.

Furthermore, former pilots and employees also proposed that Erick Thohir sell the remaining assets. Then, distribute it evenly to former employees as severance pay.

"We hope that the SOE Minister will provide support for a proportional distribution of Merpati's assets which are sold as part of the severance payment," said Markus Nababan, a lawyer for the former pilot and employee of Merpati Air.

The former pilots and employees of Merpati also urged PT PPA President Director Yandi Jaya Ruchandi at the meeting yesterday. The attorney for the former pilot and employee of Merpati Bertua Hutapea said that until now PT PPA has not made a decision to pay the severance pay for the former pilots and employees of Merpati.

"PT PPA admits that it is still waiting for a decision from the SOE Minister for steps to settle severance payments for ex-pilots and Merpati employees," said Bertua.

Therefore, Bertua asked PT PPA and the Minister of SOEs to seriously take concrete steps to pay severance pay. The reason is that former Merpati pilots and employees are facing a tough situation.

"We expect PT PPA to be a solution for disbursing severance pay for former Merpati pilots and employees worth IDR 312 billion," said Bertua.

Moreover, said Bertua, the age of former pilots and employees of Merpati is not young anymore. Their average age is over 50 years. So that after Merpati was declared closed, they had difficulty getting a decent new job.

"So they really depend on severance pay. Unfortunately, the severance pay has not been disbursed for 7 years," explained Bertua.