News on SOE Workers Must Work on May 25 Is Hoax: Ministry

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned Enterprises or SOE Ministry clarified issues saying the ministry’s employees were obliged to start working on May 25, 2020, is false information or hoax.

“Information about the SOE Ministry that mandates its workers to work on May 25 is a hoax. We never said that,” said the ministry’s special staffer Arya Sinulingga in a short message in Jakarta on Monday, May 18.

According to him, there will likely be a phase that a new normal can occur on that date. “Hopefully this will clarify the news for all,” Arya added.

The SOE Ministry’s Deputy for Human Resources, Technology, and Information, Alex Denni, said the ministry had demanded all state firms with COVID-19 task forces focus on anticipating the new normal scenarios.

“This anticipation does not mean that we are just waiting but also influencing, pushing the community so the new normal can be implemented faster,” said Alex.

He recalled that SOEs were also urged to draft COVID-19 mitigation protocols, which were not limited to the protection of human capital, either employees, customers, suppliers, business partners, or other stakeholders.

“Each SOE COVID-19 handling task force must compile a timeline of the implementation of the new normal scenarios based on policies of the SOE Ministry, commands of related ministries/institutions (such as BNPB and Health Ministry), and certain orders from respective sectors or regions,” Alex explained.

ANTARA