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Recruitment of Indonesian workers


Sometime after my retirement from government service, I took on employment as the Human Resources Manager of a Multinational Plantation Company.  


At that time, we were short of foreign workers as the last batch of foreign workers we had recruited were averse to plantation life, having lived in the metropolis of Jakarta. They could not adjust to the rustic life of the plantations and slowly dispersed to the urban areas and the Republic of Singapore. I chided the Indonesian contractor for bringing in urban dwellers. He gave the excuse that he was not to be blamed as he had relied on his contacts in Jakarta and they had mistook the nature of work that was on offer and recruited those available in Jakarta and the suburbs. He pleaded that it was a genuine mistake and he would rectify it with future recruitments. 


My bosses were unhappy and urged me to go down in person to supervise the recruitment process in the source country. We still used the same contractor as he had appealed for a final chance to undo his mistakes. I was there with a team of senior managers to ensure that future recruitments would follow the protocols we had established. 


On one of the days of our visits we had retired to our individual rooms after a heavy meal arranged by our contractor. That night as I was about to retire I heard a faint knock on my room door.The door was heavy not allowing for communication between those in the room and those  outside. I put on the safety latch on the door and stepped outside to investigate. I found the contractor accompanied by two young girls I had not seen before. 

I asked him if they were his staff; he shook his head and said the two girls were a gift from his boss to entertain us. I told him if he does not get rid of the girls I shall make sure he is delisted from our list of suppliers. He sent off the girls and apologised for the error of his ways and pleaded not to be delisted. The contractor met us the next day and apologised for the misdemeanour  of his Assistant and assured us it would not happen again - however it was too little too late - we promptly removed him from our list of suppliers.



All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


Images is by modern Indonesian master, Affandi and is for illustrative purposes only.

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