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The drivers also demand to be upgraded from partner to employee

Several Go-Jek drivers have gone on strike to protest a deduction of IDR 40,000 (US$2.90) from their monthly income for uniform and ‘smartphone installment’ fees. The drivers also demanded to have their status upgraded from ‘partners’ to formal employee.

At 10 AM (Jakarta time) today, at least a dozen drivers gathered in front the startup’s headquarters in Kemang, South Jakarta, before being called in for a dialogue with the management.

Fitrijansjah Toisutta, a Go-Jek driver who is coordinating the protest, said the startup has violated labor laws “because up until now the drivers have never been considered as formal employees, only as partners.”

He added that, “If it goes on like this, the drivers will never have clarity of status.”

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Go-Jek responded to the protest by revealing that the income deduction was caused by a bug in its system.

“Since days ago, we have received news about a certain bug in our system related to [the] phone installment fee, and have been followed up by our Finance and IT team,” said Pingkan Irwin, VP of Marketing of Go-Jek, as quoted by Detik.com.

“We have informed the drivers about this bug through in-app blast [messaging], to explain that their deposit has been returned by Go-Jek,” she added.

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According to Toisutta, Go-Jek drivers had previously planned to protest the startup’s policy to decrease the per-kilometre fare from Rp 4,000 (US$0.29) to Rp 3,000 (US$0.21). But the protest did not push through because Go-Jek announced internally that it would terminate drivers who participate in the protest.

Despite the protest, he said that the drivers do not plan to quit working with Go-Jek. “We do this because we are expecting progress, because we see that the management had made effort to be better than before,” he said.

Follow-up protests are planned on November 18 and 20, he said.

Also Read: Unidentified man fires gun at Go-Jek training centre

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