Idris Idham, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical and Health Workers Union (FARKES), was sacked from his job as a hospital assistant manager on 29 August 2018. He had been working at the Rumah Sakit Islam Jakarta Pondok Kopi hospital in Jakarta for the past 24 years, and had been chairman of the local union branch of FARKES at the hospital since 2000.
Idris was fired for failing to use the fingerprint scanner at the hospital to clock in and out of work. As part of the collective agreement between the union and the hospital, Idham had the right to take union leave. He would often carry out those activities at the union offices in the afternoon, meaning that he could not use the hospital fingerprint scanner at the end of the day.
Idris had been under pressure from hospital management since he was elected president of FARKES and vice president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions, KSPI-CITU in 2017.
He received his first warning letter in December 2017, and although an economics graduate who worked on financial matters, he was transferred to the hospital’s security unit. Pressure from management increased further when he expressed concerns about outsourcing workers at the hospital and made allegations of mistakes made by the director.
Idham received a second warning letter in April in 2018, and on 13 August 2018 he was suspended indefinitely until finally being sent a letter of dismissal on 29 August. His dismissal was described by IndustriALL global union as a thinly veiled attempt at union busting.
