Fired Penabur Teacher Is Cause Celebré

It would appear that the management of the self-styled BPK Penabur International can't do much right.

Having been accused by a parent of being arogan, they're now facing yet another court case for unlawful dismissal, this time brought by Dr. Walter Tonetto who was hired to be Principal of Penabur International at the head office campus in Tanjung Duren.

He was expected to work on a tourist visa, a deportation matter, he was belatedly paid relocation expenses from Bali, he wasn't been paid anything for the work he did do, and, in spite of protestations from Penabur that he was sent various letters from management requesting a meeting, there is no proof that they were in fact sent.

He was in Bali arranging his relocation.

So they fired him.

You can read all about it on International Schools Review.

Do read the self-justifying Penabur letters citing their 'Christian background' as good enough reasons for doing what they do. It's worth noting that they claim to have a 100% success rate in legal cases.

The Indonesian judiciary has this month been rated as the most corrupt in Asia in a poll of businessmen and, according to Transparency International, Indonesians trust them almost as little as they trust the police.

So, how do you think Penabur achieves such a startling success rate? This blog is now open to all teachers, students and parents who feel they have been wronged over the years by Penabur.

Angry Students Write About Penabur

The following letter has been occasioned by the receipt of emails, over the past two years but several in the past month, from former students of BPK Penabur programmes. I am keeping their names confidential because, as one has written today, "if someone know that I give out this information, Penabur will do something bad for my degree, because as you know Penabur can do anything .... "

It is certainly time for the atmosphere of intimidation engendered throughout the educational establishments of BPK Penabur, among teachers, students - but not, thankfully, parents (see below) - to cease.
........................................

Greetings former students of Penabur.

Many of you may not know that I have been involved in a legal case for two years against BPK Penabur for unfair dismissal. Depnaker (the Department of Manpower) in our favour, but the judge at Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial (the Industrial Relations Court) overturned the ruling, a surprise as this is almost unprecented. We are now waiting for the Supreme Court to overturn the PHI ruling and find in our favour - again.

You can read about the case here in Bhs. Indonesia and here in English:

What is sad, but an indication that Penabur is not well-managed, is that there are many teachers, both local and Indonesian who have been treated badly by BPK Penabur, who have also had to follow the legal route.

I know of teachers, both local and expat, who have ended up in hospital following their very bad treatment by the BPK Board, and of another teacher who had to sell his house in order to sponsor his own visa ~ UPI refused to process his exit permit or pay for the work he had already done.

Not one teacher ever leaves Penabur happy. Happy to leave, yes, but only because of the very unhappy situation they find themselves in, and very rarely, if ever, on mutually agreeable terms.

Not only teachers, but parents and, especially, you have been lied to, generally in the name of 'profitability'. To me, a lifelong educator, I find this to be both cynical and unforgivable, especially coming from an organisation which claims to be Christian. (Remember the story of Jesus and the moneylenders - Mathew 21.)

I have received emails from you, not only expressing disappointment at my dismissal, but also saying that you had misgivings about Penabur.

Some quotes:

1. I hope that you will win the case against Penabur... because my experience as being a student of Ukrida Penabur Internasional for almost three years was completely dissapointing ....

It started from the promises from the board member of UPI association, Mr.Sonny (Hartono). He promised the students that UPI would build a new building 1 year after my enrollment to UPI....but the fact is, there is no one single building for UPI!

Second, I graduated in November 2005 from my high school; one of the reasons why I chose UPI was that they promised that they will open the Foundation degree on Feb 2006. The fact was, they postponed the program until June 2006, ...so they lied to me for the second time....

Third, when I entered, UPI promised us that they will give native and expat lecturers, but we had many more local lecturers rather than native... the comparison is 1 native lecturer and 5 local ones, so we didn't really experience an International Environment like UPI promised to the Students and Parents.

2. All the foundation students don't agree with the increasing for tuition fees .... because at the first time we join the UPI, Chris (the former head of Curtin Uni sponsored programme) said that there would not be any raise. UPI increases the tuition fee, but they doesn't improve the fasilities such as computer access and student lounge ..... The Internet connection is also very bad ..... I don't know why they are doing this to the students.....

3. Our Accounting lecturer was an ex-pilot and had no experience in teaching but there he was.

I heard that Curtin wanted their students to move to Curtin Perth or Sydney on their third year, but UPI refused to cooperate and they said their students have to finish their studies here, unless the students actually wanted to move there. Thus, Curtin decided to cooperate with INTI College here instead.

4. From a former Senior High School student, now working in the USA.
I was disappointed to some of their decisions on P321 and PPBS. Other than that, they do need some serious wake up calls. I really hope you win this case.
(P3-21 -> Program Pembinaan Pemimpin - Abad 21 -> Leadership guidance program for 21st century.
PPBS -> Program Pembinaan Bakat Siswa -> Student talent guidance program.)
...................................

If any of you still have grievances against Penabur, I would like to hear from you and I will respect your privacy and confidentiality. You can email me here.

Anyway, now that you are no longer a Penabur student, I hope that your studies and life are to your satisfaction.

Best wishes.

J
PS. Please feel free to pass this email on to former Penabur/UPI students

An Angry Parent Writes to Kompas

Now parents are beginning to realise that BPK Penabur prioritises income from student fees above educational standards.

Search for 'Penabur' in the Kompas archives and you'll find loads of stories about prize-winning students. Interestingly, the proprietor of Kompas, the respected Jakob Oetomo, started his journalistic career on the tabloid Penabur back in the 50's. That is why I'm surprised at the publication of this letter from a parent.

Dikecewakan BPK Penabur Internasional

Permasalahan diawali saat mendaftarkan anak saya untuk melanjutkan sekolah di kelas VII di Sekolah BPK Penabur Internasional Kelapa Gading, Jakarta Utara, tahun ajaran 2008/2009.

Saat pendaftaran pihak sekolah memberikan spesifikasi/keterangan/janji, antara lain proses belajar berlangsung hingga pukul 12.00 untuk sertifikasi Cambridge saja, atau pukul 14.00 bagi yang mengikuti pelajaran tambahan sesuai muatan lokal.

Guru yang mengajar adalah native speaker atau ekspatriat dengan sertifikasi Cambridge. Jumlah guru adalah dua guru per kelas masing-masing satu guru utama yang native/ekspatriat dibantu satu guru lokal.

Ketika tahun ajaran dimulai saya dikejutkan dengan pelaksanaan belajar-mengajar yang baru selesai pukul 16.35 belum termasuk ekstrakurikuler setiap hari Senin hingga Jumat. Setelah dihujani protes dari para orangtua murid, kemudian sejak 1 Agustus 2008 jadwal diubah menjadi pulang pukul 15.45.

Perubahan jadwal itu dilakukan dengan cara memotong jatah waktu istirahat siswa serta jam masuk sekolah dimajukan ke 07.15 dari 07.30. Lebih parah lagi guru yang mengajar cuma satu guru/kelas dan sebagian besar bukan ekspatriat seperti yang dijanjikan. Bahkan, beberapa guru tidak dapat berkomunikasi lisan secara baik dalam bahasa Inggris sebagaimana seharusnya di sekolah yang menggunakan kurikulum Cambridge dan menyatakan dirinya sekolah internasional.
Dalam perbincangan lewat telepon (15/8), Bapak Yadi dari yayasan dengan arogan menyatakan, memang mulai bulan Maret 2008 telah diputuskan tidak ada lagi sistem dua guru per kelas.

Ini tindakan sewenang-wenang setelah menerima uang registrasi (dibayarkan Februari 2008) sekian banyak terus melakukan perubahan sepihak tanpa mengindahkan janji yang diberikan pada saat penerimaan siswa. Ternyata yayasan/sekolah menghalalkan semua cara untuk mendapatkan siswa.

Sungkono Sadikin
Vila Permata Gading G 17, Jakarta

Indonesia: Cultural and historical baggage

by David Jardine

It's not just misogyny. Women academics often have to overcome cultural difficulties and prejudice engrained by centuries of experience and tradition that favour their male colleagues. Indonesia is a case in point: any historical assessment of its educational development for women must take into account two broad things - the record of Dutch colonialism and the often turbulent record of the post-independence period.

If we begin with the former we find that in 1930, the colonial authorities published statistics showing only 6.4% of 'natives' could read and write, and more of these were men than women. This figure probably only counted people literate in the Roman alphabet and any literacy in Arabic for religious purposes or in the Pali script of the Javanese was probably discounted.

Whatever, the figure was truly dismal and would not have improved much, if at all, in the 15 years between its publication and the Indonesian Proklamasi of Independence, given that time included the Great Depression and the Japanese Occupation.

Following former President Sukarno's historic proclamation of independence on August 17 1945, there came four years and four months of bitter struggle with the Dutch, supported by the British. This was hardly an auspicious time for the new nation to build an education system of its own.

Basic literacy was the first target but that of course would have to wait on the training of teachers. The country's founding fathers, however, included a few of the tiny handful of Indonesians who had enjoyed higher education at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and in December 1949, weeks before the final Dutch withdrawal, Indonesia got its first university, Gajah Mada in the Central Java city of Jogjakarta.

In these circumstances, it would be quite startling to find more than a very few Indonesian women going to university and the first intake was predominantly male. What few who had received a good formal education, Dutch-style, included the national heroine and activist Raden Ayu Kartini who successive governments have iconised as a symbol of female emancipation, a position disputed somewhat by some Indonesian feminists. The latter include Gadis Arriva, who, as a philosophy professor at the University of Indonesia, remains one of the few highly placed female academics in the country.

Sukarno's leadership during the 1950s was undoubtedly popular with large segments of the Indonesian people but was erratic. Nonetheless, the state university expanded somewhat in these years with the creation of campuses outside Java as well as inside. Again, the impression is that women were in a minority in the student intake.

Sukarno was displaced in 1966 in the aftermath of the anti-leftist bloodbath that brought General Suharto to power with Western support. Despite this, there was a major expansion of both basic education infrastructure and the higher education system during the 32-year Suharto New Order regime from which large numbers of female students undoubtedly benefited.

At the same time basic literacy figures soared and showed very little disparity between boys and girls. Since the financial crisis of 1998 precipitating the student-led movement that brought Suharto down, however, Indonesia's school drop-out rate has climbed rather dramatically, with both genders affected but with poorer children doing worse than their richer classmates.

The paradox of the Suharto years is that along with the expansion of both state and private universities went a regime of quietism on the country's campuses. Towards the end of the regime this was bound to give way and the boisterous student movement that took to the street was far from universally male. Female college students, though, were also commonly in the way of the water cannon and baton charges.

Current constraints on female progress in education either as students or as academics include religious objections to female leadership. The same applies across the spectrum of public leadership. Although Indonesia has recently had one woman president, Sukarno's daughter Megawati, she appears untypical if not atypical. Only a small number of local governments are female-led.

The current Cabinet includes two influential women, Sri Mulyani as Finance Minister and Mari Pangestu as Trade Minister.

Clearly, in a country with a vast and overwhelming Muslim majority, such religious objections as are expressed are most likely to be Islamic. It is of note that overwhelmingly Hindu Bali is one of Megawati's political power bases.

A recent survey by the current affairs weekly Tempo found that women graduates were turning up in previously all-male fields of employment, including engineering in the oil industry and internet technology. This would seem to indicate that certain gender biases have begun to break down. Equally, it is of note that the women's studies programme at the University of Indonesia was established by a male rector.

Previously published by University World News
......................................
DJ tells that he has "since discovered several women professors in the better unis."

Examining The Examiners

The following is an edited version of a post on Jakartass.

Ignorant and Arrogant Kalla

Once again, the Vice President Yusuf Kalla, that mastermind of educational standards, has been taking potshots at parents and teachers. This time he has been talking about the Ujian Nasional (National Examinations).

These are set and administered by the Ministry of Education's Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (Institute/Board for National Education Standards). These are taken in SD (Elementary School, Grade 6, 11+), SMP (Junior High, Grade 9, 14+) and SMA (Senior High, Grade 12). In order to 'graduate' to the next level, which is university in the case of Grade 12 students, they must achieve a minimum average score of 5.25 in as many as six subjects, of which three, Maths, Indonesian and English are compulsory. Given regional ties and geopolitics, I do wonder why Mandarin isn't a higher priority.

Kalla says that the passing grade at 5.25 is still too low. After all, in Singapore it's 7.00 and in Malaysia it's 8.00.

Well, so ......?

As I've already stated, the national exams, being multi-choice, are designed for automatons trained in the art of guessing, although maybe it's not an art but a technology because it's not as if there are moves in education circles towards a population trained to be critical in their thinking.

Society is being trained to be acquiescent so that the likes of Kalla, Bakrie and other family conglomerates seemingly concerned with 'welfare' can enrich themselves at our expense. And we get the blame for the almighty cock-ups they've perpetrated on our behalf.

According to the Post, Kalla also says that teachers should teach the content that will be tested and students should know what is going to be tested. This could be interpreted as a licence to cheat.

However, I'll be fair and merely test one test.

I have a copy of this year's Junior High Ujian Nasional prepared for SMP. It is riddled with errors, too many to count, errors of collocation, syntax, spelling, punctuation, verb tenses and more. I reckon it's a good thing that the pass mark is "too low". And after all that, it merely tests basic reading skills and knowledge of synonyms. There are no writing, listening or oral components, which is probably just as well.

After all, if even the examiners can't pass it ....

Have a look at Question 7, which I've copied verbatim. What do you think is the correct answer?
..................................................
Read the following notice. It's put on the wall.




It means ...
-------A.----the place is special for you as visitors.
-------B.----this is a place for you to wait.
-------C.----you cannot wait anyone here.
-------D.----you should not stay here.
..................................................
Ignoring the fact that 'the' wall is not specified and the word 'for' is omitted from C, it seems obvious that C and D are not the right answers.

You'd probably correctly answer B, however, given that there are too many horrendous errors, that in one reading passage "Komala drowned ... and all of her guards could not save her" and that in another passage we are informed that there will be a wedding on "Friday, the thirthteenth of June", is A actually wrong?

So, Mr. Kalla, don't criticise parents who sue the Ministry of Education for failing their children, and don't criticise those teachers - again - who are really pissed off at being employed by a bunch of bureaucrats who think they have all the answers.

Which they probably do.

For a price.
..................................

Among the responses to the above post was this comment by Dr. Bruce:
The amount of classroom time that is spent on preparing for these things is amazing, but then the US is not exactly a standard to match either as so many schools waste so much time teaching for the test.

It's not just in the US, although it could be argued that it is the transplanted US practices which are partly responsible for the debacles both here and elsewhere, including the UK.

Educational Testing Services (ETS), known here for ToEFL and ToEIC exams, those multiple-choice monstrosities which pay absolutely no heed to cultural differences outside the white middle-classes of middle-America, have a five year contract with the UK's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

This has turned into a "fiasco".

Problems first began to emerge in October last year when some senior markers resigned over new approaches to the way the so-called Key Stage tests would be marked.

By early spring this year, teachers were reporting a series of administrative problems, including ETS failing to register their contract details, delays in training and the failure of a vetting system for English markers. To compound problems, completed papers were delayed in being sent to markers.

Incidentally, on this page, you're asked 'Who Is ETS?'

Not the correct 'Who Are ETS?' or 'What Is ETS?'
Answer: Educational Testing Service (ETS) is the largest private educational measurement organisation in the world today.

A Balls Up

That was in the lead up to the Scholarship Aptitude Tests taken by 11+ and 14+ year-olds this year. What has followed as a result is even worse, bearing in mind that entry to the next level of schooling is generally dependent on test results.

Thousands of schoolchildren may have to wait until the autumn for key test results after a company brought in to administer the tests failed to deliver on time.

The schools secretary, Ed Balls, has been forced to delay the publication of test results for 1.2 million pupils and set up an urgent independent inquiry to document the errors which have disrupted the marking of national SATs for 11- and 14-year-olds. Results had been expected at schools by Tuesday (July 1st). Most will now be a week late, but ministers last night admitted some pupils will not get their marks until after the summer holidays (in early September).

Education for Greed, Not Need

I became a teacher because I hated secondary school. I was a bright pupil in my primary school and the only blight I can recall was that Art was limited to one class taught by a Mr. Pasha and I was excluded.

My boys-only grammar school teachers were generally ex-armed forces personnel with that particular approach to discipline, one I hated. I can recall only two teachers who I recall as being 'enlightened'. The history teacher gave us the social context of events; unfortunately this wasn't tested, as key dates in terms of British imperialism were considered more important. The art teacher stretched our cloistered minds and took us took us to cinema clubs to see art films such as Cleo de 5 á 7.

When I graduated from a three year course at a teacher training college, art was my main subject, an interest that has continued, and later my inner-city students won many prizes at national exhibitions. Hopefully I encouraged my students to examine themselves in relation to their community and environment. I encouraged them to realise their innate potential and a self-belief as sensitive human beings giving something to the society they are part of.

Nowadays folk like Kalla would no doubt ask about the value of what I did, where was the profit, to which there is a simple answer.

For society to work, co-operation, rather than competition, is the key, with the main reward being personal satisfaction at a job well done. A level of humility is appropriate, although not obeisance and obsequiousness. It is right to mistrust those who seek to impose their value systems and morality on others, particularly when their own competence can be challenged.

The key is to take responsibility for one's own life - and allow others to do the same. For that, institutions of social control need to be controlled by society rather than those 'market forces' which operate outside society and seek to subvert cultures and communities to their own ends.

These ends too often lead to the end of the identities which bind us together.

Penabur's Disregard of Indonesia's Manpower Law - 1

Comments on Process of Termination of Employment JP and TC by BPK-Penabur.
(NB. All Articles quoted are taken from Act No.13, 2003, concerning Manpower)

Article 46.1
No worker of foreign citizenship is allowed to occupy positions that deal with personnel …..
- David Nesbit, the Teacher Co-ordinator who signed the letters of termination, is British.

Article 57
(1) A work agreement for a specified period of time shall be made in writing and must be written in the Indonesian language with Latin alphabets.
- Employment contracts were in English only.

(2) A work agreement for a specified period of time, if made against what is prescribed under subsection (1), shall be regarded as a work agreement for an unspecified period of time.
- NO contracts were issued to NETs by BPK-Penabur from January 2005 until June 2006.

Article 59.7
Any work agreement for a specified period of time that does not fulfill the requirements referred to
under subsections (1), (2), (4), (5) and (6) shall, by law, become a work agreement for an
unspecified period of time.
- Ergo: the initial employment agreements signed in August 2004 by Sonny Hartono, as the representative of BPK-Penabur (the First Party) and JP and TC (the Second Parties) remain valid for an unspecified period, or until the termination is agreed by both parties.

Article 151
(1)The entrepreneur, the worker and or the trade/labour union, and the government must make all efforts to prevent termination of employment from taking place.
- The termination of the employments of JP and TC were arbitrary, with no reasons given, nor were the procedures set out in August 2004 followed.

(2) If despite all efforts made termination of employment remains inevitable, then, the intention to carry out the termination of employment must be negotiated between the entrepreneur and the trade/labour union to which the affected worker belongs as member, or between the entrepreneur and the worker to be dismissed if the worker in question is not a union member.
- There was no discussion or recognized procedure, let alone ‘negotiation’. (cf. Article 161)

If the negotiation as referred to under subsection (2) fails to result in any agreement, the entrepreneur may only terminate the employment of the worker/ after receiving a decision [a permission to do so] from the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes.
- A statement reinforced in Articles 153.2 and 155.

Article 153.2
Any termination of employment that takes place for reasons referred to under subsection (1) (none of which apply to JP or TC) shall be declared null and void by law. The entrepreneur shall then be obliged to reemploy the affected worker.
- Or is obliged to continue paying the salaries and entitlements cf. Article 155.

Article 155
Any termination of employment without the decision of the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes as referred to under subsection (3) of Article 151 shall be declared null and void by law.

(2) As long as there is no decision from the institute for the settlement of industrial relation disputes, both the entrepreneur and the worker/ labourer must keep on performing their obligations.

The entrepreneur may violate what is stipulated under subsection (2) above by suspending the worker/ labourer who is still in the process of having his/her employment terminated provided that the entrepreneur continues to pay the worker’s wages and other entitlements that he/she normally receives.
- NO payment has been made to either Second Party, not even that promised by BPK-Penabur in its letter of termination. Furthemore, BPK-Penabur has refused - in writing - to process the documentation necessary for residence and employment in Indonesia.

Article 161
In case the worker violates the provisions that are specified under his or her individual work agreement, the enterprise’s rules and regulations, or the enterprise’s collective work agreement, the entrepreneur may terminate his or her employment after the entrepreneur precedes it with the issuance of the first, second and third warning letters consecutively.
- No such letters were ever issued, nor were discussions held.

Respect for Employees by Employers and Legal Protection

Article 32.2
Job placement shall be directed to place people available for work in the right job or position which best suits their skills, trade, capability, talents, interest and ability by observing their dignity and rights as human beings as well as [providing them with] legal protection.
- BPK-Penabur has long had a reputation for treating its teaching staff, both local Indonesian and expatriate staff, with disrespect and intimidation. The summary dismissals within UPI are but one example.

Article 35.3
In employing people who are available for a job, the employers are under an obligation to provide [them with] protection, which shall include protection for their welfare, safety and health, both mental and physical.
- No health insurance was made available to expatriate staff in BPK-Penabur’s UPI programme from August 2004 - July 2006. During this period, at least one employee of UPI was summarily dismissed because of his ill health.

Article 86
Every worker has the right to receive:

• Occupational safety and health protection;
• Protection against immorality and indecency;
• Treatment that shows respect to human dignity and religious values.

- TC was fired during the Muslim fasting month, just prior to Idul Fitri. It was known that his family are Muslim.

Repatriation

Article 48
Employers who employ workers of foreign citizenship are under an obligation to repatriate the workers of foreign citizenship to their countries of origin after their employment comes to an end.
- At no time has BPK-Penabur complied with this Article, not even for three teachers recruited in Australia.

A Few Wise Comments About The Whys

With your no doubt vast experience of Indonesia and matters Indonesian, I always felt that your court case rather like second marriages, represented the 'triumph of hope over experience'.

Perhaps in this case it would have been better to have adopted the adage of 'don't explain, don't complain - get even'.

As far as the judgement goes it might have serious implications for the average Indonesian wage slave - but then how many of them can afford to take Balinese vacations? I'm sure that your indignation is real but is it righteous (or should that be the other way round?).

Just a thought!

Anon (but presumably Antisthenes - see below)
| "May 13, 2008, 8:50 am" | #
............................

Good points Anon (but presumably Antisthenes), but let me say that finding time and credit in order to meet one's first grandchild has to take precedence over other matters. It was also the first time we have left Jakarta in nearly two years!

As for Indonesians affording Bali, you'd be surprised how crowded it apparently gets during the school holidays. We were told that this year June/July will be virtually sold out.

As for second marriages or, as in my case, third, let me say that this one has lasted a darn sight longer. Practice makes (near) perfect?

And, yes, the judgment does have implications for EVERY employee in this country. But should I have lain down and accepted totally illegal, even criminal, actions against me, and seemingly every other employee in their employ.

Note that an Indonesian SD (elementary) teacher brought a similar case before the court at the same time and she lost too. We expats do, however, have the precedent of a Singapore International School expat teacher winning a very similar case last year.

Penabur's intimidatory actions - they refused our final pay cheques or to process our residence papers/visas etc. unless we dropped our legal process - will probably be the subject of criminal actions. After all, I am a virtual prisoner here, albeit with the full knowledge of Immigration HQ and my embassy.

Finally, consider the implications for foreign investors here: if there are no certainties about employment practices, then there will be (further) anarchy.

Expect to hear a lot more about this.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 9:28 am" | #
............................

This is Indonesia; wake up! You only get what you bribe in the law courts and expats are powerless; your KITAS is for year and entitles you to be employed on a limited basis as an "advisor". You don't have any rights in this country and you are wasting your time I'm afraid.

Going to the supreme court? A bunch of expat teachers...a howler!

Anonymous | "May 15, 2008, 12:22 pm" | #
............................

"You don't have any rights in this country"?

That is deeply flawed cynicism, Anon. So you are saying that Indonesian housemaids in, say, Malaysia and Hong Kong, who are the subject of an ASEAN treaty, are better off in legal terms than foreign workers employed here? And that's OK?

I wonder, then, if we shouldn't get in touch with the Korean and Japanese embassies as their nationals far outnumber us.

BTW. I'll delete any further anonymous comments, although I'll accept pen names.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 12:15 pm" | #
............................

Whilst I agree that you have been treated shabbily by all and sundry in this my point really was that your overall stance and position when viewed from an Indonesian perspective could be accompanied by a murmur of the ironical 'kasian' for perhaps in judging your case the powers that be could have been swayed by the following:

A Here's this well educated foreigner on wages of 10 times or more than those of a local of similar ability and background demanding extra because he feels that he has been treated unfairly. He wants to be compensated with additional highly paid income for which he will not be working. Well being rich can be irksome.

We weren't actually paid for our last labours, as they stated in writing that they would.

B As a wealthy non-Indonesian he can afford at least to seek compensation for his perceived wrongs. Poor people cannot. Additionally the evidence he presents is highly critical of his Indonesian employers in inflammatory language too. His point might be a good one but there is no reason to be insulting and rude.

Wealthy? Not all expats live in enclaves and send their children to International Schools paid for by their employers. Have a browse through 'my' book and consider how remote I am (not) from Indonesian (read Jakartan) life and culture.

Nope, I can't afford to lose, and my ex-colleague in similar distress and similarly unpaid, spent c.Rp.70 million in bribes in order to process a new KITAS because, as I said, Penabur refused unless he/we dropped our legal case. This intimidation is, of course, subject to Indonesia's Criminal Code.

C The judge's cousin's mother-in-law's brother did some business with the aggrieved party (thats the school not Jakartass) and he said expat employees are always moaning about something or other - you think with their money they'd have nothing to complain about but they do.

Actually, we dropped our first set of lawyers when we discovered that the husband of one of them was a land broker in cahoots with Penabur.

D If he doesn't like the way things are done in Indonesia he should go home.

I am home. I have an Indonesian family, and have lived in the same (rented) house for over 20 years.

E He seems to think that law and justice are the same thing - well they're not.

But shouldn't they be?

The above perceptions are of course only supposition but I think there might be a grain of truth in at least some of it.

My point I guess is overall why did you not just shrug and walk away? (or fire bomb the school!) as we all must do sometimes, I'm sure your employers only got nasty when you started 'kicking off'.

They got nasty before our treatment having intimidating native speaker teachers for the previous two and a bit years: in employing them on business and tourist visas, in forcing prospective employees to negotiate separately for salaries and in refusing to allow time to consider the job offers.

"If you don't want it, there are plenty of others who do, and for less money."

I know that the above is provocative and most of it is 'just suppose' but this case could be another 'Jarndyce vs Jarndyce' (who? what?) and do you really want your life to be dominated by this thing.

Sure it dominates. Funding a family whilst in a state of uncertainty isn't easy and it has affected my health - my hair wasn't white before. However, as Penabur didn't provide any insurance for their expat employees for the first two years, not even through Jamsostek, the state insurance company, as they were legally bound to do, the stress might well have got to me eventually.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're right but you're wrong.

Nope, I'm right and Penabur is wrong, terribly wrong.

Anon (but presumably Antisthenes - see below)
| "May 15, 2008, 12:25 pm" | #
..........................

My stance is really quite simple. In this so-called age of reformasi, as Indonesians begin to come to terms, after 40 years of cowed obeyance, with the notion of communal respect and individual responsibility, it is the rule of law, particularly internationally respected conventions to which Indonesia have become signatories, which should be paramount.

My arguments are certainly with my/our erstwhile employers, but I have, as yet, not written anything which can be construed as inflammatory. Anything submitted by our legal team, and everything I write, has documentation to back up our case - including my comments above about visas and intimidation. Oh, and a death threat.

That I have not been sued for defamation is possibly an indication or admission by the employers that they understand this and have, therefore, knowingly flouted both the civil and criminal codes.

As for demanding 'extra', we are claiming nothing more than our legal entitlements according to Act No.13, 2003, concerning Manpower. (I can give full verse and chapter, i.e. Articles, and probably will - later.)

BTW. I am home! And the head of my legal team is a neighbour.

I may have done better by going to the Human Rights Commission or to LBH (the Legal Aid Institute), but having the respect of the community I've lived in for 20+ years has to count for something.

As for the rights of all to be treated equally before the law. This is not just a personal matter, stressful though it is.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 1:21 pm" | #
.....................................

As I said before I feel that you're right, but wrong to pursue matters; injustice is all around us but living in a state of indignation, albeit righteous is surely not a healthy way of carrying on.

I agree that the insouciance of the general population here to serious breaches of human rights is a concern and that beating the drum for contractually sodomised expat teachers is a worthy cause to follow.

However is life long enough?

As for your comments regarding your horror for the flouting of the law and that something must be done and justice will out, I'm sure that yours is just one of many arbitrary, unfair and wrong decisions made by a legal system that, as I'm sure your neighbour will agree, is seriously flawed and essentially runs on graft and favour.

Read your previous posts regarding Tommy S and Munir and many more. I can only say once again with your long experience of the way things are that you optimistically expected that this time it would be different.

As for the threat to foreign investment that this ruling seems to pose, I can only say that many of the foreign companies presently extracting enormous wealth from this poor country may well applaud heartily labor laws that allow them to brook no opposition, and it must be faced that your test case might well help them along.

Also should we not allow the Indonesians to fight their own battles against injustice?

Till the revolution my friend and this time not anon.

Antisthenes | "May 15, 2008, 2:10 pm" | #
.....................................

For evil to exist, good men do nothing.

As you have noted, through Jakartass I have been championing the rights of underdogs. Now I've become one, are you suggesting that I should roll over and have my tummy tickled?

No fucking chance, mate!

I'm not going to google the source of the quote above, but to suggest that I should do nothing is somewhat naive, isn't it? Surely it's the personal which provides the focus and the essential fires in the belly for the fight ahead.

Jakartass | Homepage | "May 15, 2008, 2:30 pm" | #

A Blow Against Labour

The following was published on 8 May 2008 by HukumOnline, the major library concerned with Indonesian legal matters, and is reproduced with their kind permission.

It relates to my legal case against BPK Penabur claiming unfair and arbitrary dismissal, a claim that we lost in the Industrial Relations Court, albeit having gone through the necessary initial process of negotiation under the auspices of the Ministry of Manpower.

The decision is of major concern to every employer or employee in Indonesia, and especially expatriates. I have not editorialised the article in any way, but in the weeks (months? years?) to come I will be adding a commentary to this blog whilst seeking to publicise those details of malfeance, intimidation and possible corruption of which we have documentary proof, not least because we are worried about the implications for all former colleagues, both expatriate and Indonesian.

Industrial Relations Court Decision - A Win for Employers

The Industrial Relations Court (Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial / PHI) located in the Central Jakarta District Court has handed down an interesting decision that has implications for the employment of expatriates across the board. This particular dispute arose between a number of teachers who believe that they have been unfairly, arbitrarily, and unilaterally dismissed contrary to the provisions enshrined in the Labor Law (Law No. 13 of 2003) to protect them.

In a blow to labor of all forms in Indonesia the PHI has sided with the employers in this case. Why is it a blow? The decision expands the previous interpretations of the provisions of the Labor Law in a manner which clearly favors employers over their employees. This brings into question whether employees have any real employment security once an employer decides to terminate their services for any reason, real or imagined, in a unilateral manner.

The Labor Law is presumably to enhance and protect the interests of both parties in this situation and to ensure this occurs a limited interpretation of the provisions must be applied. Limited in this sense refers to interpretations that comply not only with the spirit of the provisions but with the wording of those provisions as well.

An interesting aside to this case is that there was a previous mediated decision formulated by the Labor and Transmigration Office of West Jakarta that indicates that the Respondents in this case were in breach of the provisions of the law. This mediated decision made an award to the Plaintiffs. However, there was a stipulation that if either party disagreed with the award then they could proceed with an action in the PHI. In this case the Respondents chose this option. It is worth noting that the PHI did not give any consideration to the mediated settlement decision of the Labor and Transmigration office despite the document being entered into evidence.

Of most interest to employers in this decision is that Specified Term Employment Contracts (Perjanjian Kerja Waktu Tertentu / PKWT) cannot morph into Unspecified Term Employment Contract (Perjanjian Kerja Waktu Tidak Tertentu / PKWTT) even where the employer fails to renew the expired PKWT. The reasoning offered by the PHI was that the Labor Law requires expatriates to be on PKWT.

The literal reasoning and application of the provision above flies in the face of the creative interpretation offered by the PHI with regard to the language of PKWTs. The Labor Law at Article 57(1) seems to explicitly suggest that a PKWT must be in Indonesian. One of the claims of the Plaintiffs was that the only contracts they had were in English. However, the PHI held that the contracts in English fulfilled the necessary requirements under the law.

For employees it is important that they understand that once they have been terminated that the “clock is ticking”. This means that the prevailing laws and regulations only allow for a certain amount of time to elapse before any claim must be lodged. It is important to note that the PHI made specific reference to matters that were submitted outside of the stipulated time frame.

However, in a win for employees, the PHI held that if an individual was engaged into employment after the mandatory retirement age then an employer could not rely then on Article 167 to terminate the employee because they had entered mandatory retirement age.

The decision was determined on 8 April 2008 and read out in open court on 17 April 2008.

The Plaintiffs have already commenced the process of appeal.

Teachers call for a change in curriculum

Schools should return to an earlier style of liberal education with more time for play and less rigid methods of teaching children to read, according to the largest teachers' union.

Citing mounting evidence of a crisis in children's happiness and mental health, the National Union of Teachers will today debate calls to scrap the most restrictive elements of the national curriculum and reverse a government order that literacy be taught through phonics.

"Teachers want a return to a system which is liberal and flexible and not top-down [and] imposed by government. We want a return to a time when there was a potential for magic moments in the classroom," said the general secretary of the NUT.

Which teachers? And where?

The full article is here, and largely refers to the not very popular methodology in English pre-schools of teaching reading through phonics rather than word recognition, but the central message has relevance here in Indonesia.

There is too much rigid testing in schools, generally multi-choice, with too little assessment. This reduces creativity and renders students torpid and unimaginative - robotic if you will. This is the pre-season of national exams which all students in grades 6, 9 and 12 have to pass in order to move on up to the next level. There are sets of exams called 'try outs' which are set by the education departments of local authorities.

I've seen the Grade 9 English paper set by the Jakarta Education board: it's a shame that it wasn't proofread by a qualified language expert (such as myself - but I'm not volunteering) before issuance.

Most graduates from senior high schools (SMA) here want to go on to tertiary education. It is unfortunate that the previous twelve years have been spent filling in dots on computer mark sheets rather than being assessed by those competent to look beyond the boundaries of A,B,C and D.

I say this because the common complaint in universities here is that plagiarism is rife. Students are ill-equipped to experiment and enquire. They remain empty vessels awaiting to be filled with so-called facts. So the mob rules and academic successes are generally in the sciences, which are 'disciplines'.

It is often stated that Indonesia is a country in waiting, one full of potential. But does it have "a potential for magic moments in the classroom."?

Is there justice in Indonesia?

This is an idle question, at least for the next four weeks in my case. Those interested in my ongoing legal process will no doubt be pleased to know that on March 27th the presiding judges at the Industrial Relations Court will issue their verdict. There will be a further week for both sides to lodge arguments about the fine details. We fully expect that we'll be seeking higher compensation based on documents, or the lack of them, which have yet to be presented to the over-worked Lordships.

For example, our employment contracts and letters of dismissal were in English, whereas they should have been in Indonesian in the first instance. Although this was a fundament of our case, we still had to provide certified translations. That several clauses run counter to Act No.13, 2003 concerning Manpower ~ for example, the notion of a probationary period in a supposedly fixed-term contract ~ I suppose means that the added expense we've incurred thereby further help prove our case.

Of course, the major question is how come BPK-Penabur were unable to provide the original documents filed with, presumably, the Departments of Manpower, Education, and Immigration, and the police, in order to process the multitude of permits and visas which enable an expatriate to legally work and reside here.

We can usefully ask why, on a number of occasions, several of us had to leave the office when officialdom was due to visit. We had presumed that our papers were in order. This does naturally lead to thought of criminal investigation, but we'll leave all that to Depnaker to sort that out once our case is settled. That'll be when Media Sekolah, a new-ish weekly tabloid with the lofty aspiration of 'Building Indonesia Through Education' (Membangun Bangsa Melalui Pendidikan) will be publishing a major expose of the network of (supposedly) Christian schools who flagrantly disregard not only the laws governing employment but also the ethics of their religion. They also produce documentaries about corruption for such crime watch TV programmes as SERGAP (on RCTI).

Was it Woody Allen who commented that "Those who can do, those who can't teach, and those who can't teach think they can manage schools." That certainly seems to hold true for too many establishments here in Jakarta. There are other former employees of Penabur who have initiated legal proceedings, the Singapore International Schools franchise network is reportedly embarrassed by the number of judgments awarded against it, and other profit-centred schools are beginning to fear the wrath of fee-paying parents.

This is a shame given the other more important issues facing the education sector, many of which are being raised in Thoughts Outside The Indonesian Box.

Worthy Of Respect?

Foreigners wishing to make a life in Jakarta have a clear choice - live in enclaves with security to keep the riff-raff out or live at street level and interact with the local community.

I have now lived in the same house for twenty years; it was my choice and 'Er Indoors moved in a year or so later. We fit in: the postman, electricity meter reader and even the newspaper 'boy' are long-term regulars. There is a monthly gathering, arisan, which the housewives attend to swap gossip and to contribute Rp.100,000 to a collective kitty which is scooped by one mum on a rotational basis, or according to urgent need.

I very rarely hear the cry "Hello, Mister", nor is the word 'bule' (whitey) often uttered in my presence. The many young children in my neighbourhood ~ a very mixed community in terms of wealth, ethnicity, religion and lifestyle, whatever that is ~ generally greet me with "Good morning/afternoon, Om (uncle)".

So it has come about that the lawyers in my legal case against my erstwhile employers, Badan Pendidikan Kristen Penabur/Ukrida Penabur Internasional, have been appointed because a senior member of the firm lives opposite. It is happenstance that one of the named partners on the letter heading was once an Attorney General in the New Order era, and the other was on the staff of Try Sutrisno when he was Army Chief shortly before becoming Suharto's penultimate Vice President.

Obviously I have not sought out high profile lawyers. I cannot afford to pay their fees upfront, not least because BPK Penabur have yet to pay me for work that I did before I was summarily dismissed. Having legal representation has come about because of the respect I have earned over the years within this community.

Intimidatory letters and phone calls have been Penabur's modus operandi not only during the course of our - yes, I have an ex-colleague in similar distress - legal process. We also have affidavits and documents which suggest that intimidation has been endemic for a number of years, both before and continuing after our own case. There are well-founded allegations of visa irregularities putting the status of expatriates at grave risk of deportation, of tax avoidance, and even an attempted eviction and a death threat. This is all generally non-Christian behaviour unbefitting an organisation which claims to be at the forefront of Indonesia's education system.

There are further allegations of continued non-compliance with manpower regulations. Many, if not all, of our former colleagues (still) do not have legally enforceable employment contracts, and there are, to our knowledge, at least two other cases involving Penabur being dealt with by the Industrial Relations Court, one of which has been brought by Indonesian staff.

This will also be a concern to Curtin University of Perth, Australia, who are co-sponsors of the UPI-Penabur Business School. Their original commitment was with UPI, initially the Penabur high school native speaker English language programme, and they were involved in the original recruitment of native-speaker teaching staff, first in Perth and later here in Jakarta, as well as the supply of courses for extra-curricular classes.

There are no suggestions that their employment practices in Australia are anything but legal and above board, but we are sure that they would not wish to lose their good name by being associated with unethical and illegal practices elsewhere.

Penabur's lawyers suggested at one meeting, a meeting where they were castigated for not providing documents, that I was in breach of 'etiquette' by publishing general comments about the ethics of the Penabur board on the internet.*

They will be interested to know that this post is being published with the knowledge and permission of our legal team.

Full disclosure of evidence will be made here on the Performing Monkeys blog as soon as it has been stated in court. I will also give details of possible criminal charges that we anticipate will be made against senior officers of the Penabur Board, rather than the minions their lawyers have named and who have been deemed disposable.

The actions of these officers demonstrate that they are worthy of no-one's respect, let alone that of their employees.
..........................................
* Read the January 2007 archive, posted in order, for a series of background posts on Penabur's "Christian" philosophy.