Merpati, Leces to Sell off Assets to Pay Unpaid Wages
17 September 2014 16:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned Enterprises (SoE) Minister Dahlan Iskan has agreed on selling the assets of Merpati Nusantara Airlines and Kertas Leces in order to allow the companies to pay the unpaid wages of its employees.
"We will convene to discuss the matter further on Thursday. The board of both companies have agreed on selling off their assets which are not directly related to the function and production capacities of the companies," said Dahlan after a meeting with Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR) at the DPR Complex last night.
The request to immediately solve the issue of unpaid wages was put in by the head of Commission VI Airlangga Hartarto, in light of the growing pressure from disgruntled workers whose wages remain unpaid.
Airlangga added that the precedent had been set by Dirgantara Indonesia (DI), who managed to resolve its obligations to its employees after selling off its non-essential assents.
"We need to find a legal solution to the matters, and since we are barred from accessing other means of funding, we settled on this solution last week. The boards have agreed on selling the companies' housing assets that are not being utilized," said Airlangga.
Merpati requires around Rp1 trillion for severance payments and other expenses while Leces needs around Rp18 billion.
Dahlan believes Leces could be saved by brokering a deal with another SoE who would be willing to use Leces' land assets. "We are looking for SoEs who are looking for land to expand their facilities, which could be built on lands owned by Leces. The inflow of capital into Leces could then be used to pay employees' severances. However, we need to abide by the procedures," said Dahlan.
Merpati's situation is more complicated since it requires far larger funds to cover its expenses.
The airline, which is currently undergoing a restructuring process, is in the process of selling Merpati Maintenance Facility (MMF) to PT PPA - a state-owned asset management company.
"We stand to gain a maximum of Rp500 billion from the sale - still short of the required Rp1 trillion figure to cover Merpati's immediate expenses," said Dahlan.
The minister also called the DPR to help come up with a viable solution for Merpati's economic woes.
"We have to have faith that there will be a solution to these problems," said Dahlan.
ANTARA | Royke Sinaga | Ella Syafputri