Indonesian yard urged to rethink lay-offs

“The plan needs to be reconsidered to see if it is in line with the law or not,” a local news report said quoting manpower minister Muhaimin Iskandar as saying.

However, Iskandar conceded he had not officially received any report about PT PAL’s retrenchment plan.

“I cannot comment much because I have not received a report about it yet. After I have later, we will certainly look into the matter,” he was quoted as saying. It is believed the yard had been making losses for the three years from 2006 to 2008 and laying-off workers is therefore a desperate measure to save costs.