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the company had taken various steps and efforts to respond to thousands of

employees' strike cases since May 2017, including consulting with the Ministry of
Manpower and the SPSI Center for Chemical, Energy and Mining Unions (SP-KEP) in

Jakarta.

"The various parties have agreed to the actions we have taken. This is because the

length of time we give to our friends is quite long, starting from April to December

2017," he stated.

The company has also encouraged them to work again through our contractors, but

most of them do not seem keen to take the opportunity. Hence, the settlement,

through the PHI path, may be the best way, Pratama further elaborated. The labor
conflict in PT Freeport arose after the government no longer extended the

concentrate export permit in mid-January 2017.

At the same time, PT Freeport also could not send 40 percent of its concentrate
production to a smelting processing plant in the Smelter Gresik company, East Java,

as it was not operating at that time. In response to this condition, the PT Freeport

management then took efficiency measures, one of them being by laying off several
employees.

"At that time, we did not conduct termination of employment/layoffs of employees
and only sent off a few employees. The company still paid salaries to the laid-off

employees. Until now, there are those who still receive salaries, some have taken

retirement packages, while some are temporarily in retirement," Pratama noted.

The Freeport management's decision to lay off some of the employees, also known

as "furlough policies," triggered a protest reaction from the head of the SP-KEP SPSI

PT Freeport Work Unit that was supported by the DPC SP KEP SPSI board of the

Mimika District leader, Aser Gobay.

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