LAYOFFS HAVE BEFALLEN 15,000 WORKERS

Jakarta, Nov 28 (ANTARA) - The number of workers in Indonesia who have been laid off until November this year as a result of the economic crisis has reached 15,000 persons while the number of those who are going to be put to rest at home has reached 50,000, a senior official said.
Director General for Industrial Relations and Workers Social Security Affairs Myra M Hanartani said the figure would likely continue to increase in accordance with economic crisis conditions.
"I hope the number will not increase further but if the crisis is not improving it will likely increase," Myra said after opening an industrial relations forum in Kuta, Bali, on Thursday.
The director general said that the government was monitoring the conditions in a number of provinces such as Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and Riau in order to an inventory of the conditions of companies and the impact of the crisis.
On Tuesday, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said it had estimated that about 200,000 workers would be laid off in the coming six months in Indonesia as a result of the financial crisis.
The Kadin estimate was mentioned by Kadin chairman for fiscal and monetary affairs Bambang Soesatyo in a discussion in the House of Representatives (DPR) building.
Bambang said businesses in the country had begun entering a difficult phase. In December 2008, many companies would even announce minus profits.
One of the factors that had begun to affect businesses was the depreciation of the rupiah against foreign currencies, the US dollar in particular.
The rupiah has fallen to Rp12,000 per US dollar, even it happened to touch the Rp13,200 level.
The weakening of the rupiah hampered companies to boost their production. At the same time, demand for goods abroad was also declining. ***4***