Thousands of workers of PT Pan Brothers Tbk (PBRX) at the Boyolali factory, Central Java, staged a demonstration. They expressed their dissatisfaction with the company's policy of paying salaries and holiday allowances in installments.
This information was revealed in a viral video uploaded on Youtube with a short duration of about 0.33 seconds which contained the boisterous masses of workers who attacked the textile company factory.
Thousands of garment factory workers also filled and closed the access road Mojosongo - Teras. In fact, they also seemed to burn tires in the middle of the road.
One worker, who declined to be named, said that the demonstration occurred spontaneously. This was triggered by worker dissatisfaction after receiving an announcement from management that this month's salary was paid in installments twice. The demonstration was followed by all workers from all divisions.
In response to this, Pan Brothers Vice Chief Executive Officer, Anne Patricia Sutanto admitted that currently the company is facing tight liquidity challenges, the company, said Anne, must share cash flow by paying obligations to banks and suppliers, along with salaries and holiday allowance that must be paid to the employees.
"Pan Brothers is able to pay the holiday allowance, as long as it is paid in installments, it can't be in full. Later all holiday allowance will be paid," said Anne.
Anne further explained, in the midst of tight liquidity conditions due to the pandemic, the company had to rack my brains to keep the PBRX business running and avoid employee layoffs.
"If the supplier is not paid on time, it will become problematic [to production]. We want to avoid layoffs," said Anne.
He said that currently management and employees have found the best efforts to solve the problem. "It's finished, they understand. We will return half a day to prevent the crowd," he added
The textile sector and the textile industry are among the sectors hit by the pandemic. They experience difficulties related to cash flow and availability of raw materials. As an impact, according to data from the Ministry of Industry, 1.5 million employees in this sector must be laid off.
