TWO HEADS OF GOVERNMENT, ONE SILENCE FROM THE COMPANY
- Shaka Amanirenas
- Apr 10
- 6 min read
Both the Provincial and City Labor Chiefs are now on record. The Riau Islands Manpower Head says the sanction has expired. The Batam City Manpower Head says he has not yet received a progress report. Meanwhile, PT Pegaunihan Technology Indonesia keeps deducting wages, and its HR manager still won't answer a single question.
Primary source for this report
LaporBatam.com — "Dikonfirmasi Soal Pengembalian Potongan Upah Bulanan dan Pemulihan Nama Baik 2 Pekerja, HRD PT Pegaunihan Bungkam" (April 8, 2026)
On Tuesday, April 7, 2026, a reporter from LaporBatam.com encountered Yudi Suprapto, S.H., M.H., Head of the Batam City Manpower Office, at Batam Centre. The reporter asked about the case of two employees of PT Pegaunihan Technology Indonesia who have been demanding the return of eight months of deducted wages and the restoration of their professional reputations.
The Batam City Manpower Head's response was four words that should not have been possible:
"I haven't received a progress report yet. I'll ask the staff handling it."
This is the same Manpower Office that issued a mediator's recommendation in this case on November 18, 2025. The same office whose mediator received evidence outside of official forums, without the employees present. The same office whose administrative conduct is currently under formal investigation by the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia.
The head of that office did not know the status of a case his own office processed five months ago, a case now covered by twelve independent media outlets and raised before the Batam City Legislature.
What the two officials actually said
The LaporBatam.com report brings into focus, for the first time, the simultaneous positions of two separate government officials on this case. Their statements, placed side by side, reveal a picture that is more troubling than either statement alone.
Dikky Wijaya, Head of the Riau Islands Provincial Manpower Office (Kadisnaker Kepri), confirmed the case and stated plainly that the disciplinary sanction, a First and Final Warning Letter issued in August 2025, has legally expired.
"The SP3 has passed six months and is no longer valid. An anjuran [mediator's recommendation] has already been issued by Disnaker Batam. Last month there was a summons from the Batam City DPRD, but it was postponed and will be rescheduled."
He added that the Provincial Manpower Office had summoned both the employees and company management. The employees attended. The company did not, requesting a rescheduled date instead.
Yudi Suprapto, Head of the Batam City Manpower Office, confirmed the case briefly and then said he would follow up with his own staff.
These two statements, taken together, describe an institution whose head is unaware of the status of a case his office formally processed, and a sanction that, according to the provincial authority above him, is no longer legally valid. And yet the wage deduction tied to that expired sanction continues to be enforced.
The company's response to twelve media inquiries
LaporBatam.com sent a WhatsApp message to Narty, the HR Manager of PT Pegaunihan Technology Indonesia, on Monday April 6. By the time the article was published on April 8, no response had been received.
This is not a new pattern. It is a documented one.
Across twelve independent media outlets that have covered this case since November 2025, TribunBatam.id, BatamInfo.co.id (two separate articles), Investigasi.news, BatamOke.com, Kutipan.co.id, RiauKepri.com, GerbangKepri.com, DetikKepriNews.com, BatamTV.com, MetroBarelangBatam.com, and now LaporBatam.com, the response from PT Pegaunihan Technology Indonesia's management to media inquiries has been identical each time.
Not a denial. Not a counter-statement. Not a factual correction. A refusal to engage.
Every outlet that sought comment from management received the same reply: no comment. In some cases, not even that, a WhatsApp message left on read, a reporter turned away at the gate by security.
There is a legal dimension to this silence that is easy to overlook. Narty, as HR Manager, is the individual named in LaporBatam.com's formal confirmation request as the person responsible for the wage deductions and the disciplinary process. The questions put to her, as reported by LaporBatam.com, were direct and specific: Under what legal authority were the deductions made? What are the components of the monthly deduction? What law governs these deductions?
These are not editorial questions. They are questions any employee is entitled to have answered in writing under Indonesian labor regulation. The absence of a response is not merely a public relations failure. It is, in itself, a documented act of non-disclosure.
The financial case - now eight months old
Engly Heryanto Ndaomanu, S.Si., M.T. and Rieke Dyah Astiwi, S.Si., both researchers in PT Pegaunihan's R&D team, received their First and Final Warning Letters in August 2025. The letters were issued under Article 10.4(f) of the company's internal regulations, which requires proof of four cumulative elements: use of another person's badge ID, absence of supervisor knowledge, concrete and measurable company loss, and a demonstrable causal link between the action and the loss.
Not one of these four elements was ever proven in any of the eight official forums the company was given the opportunity to address.
As Engly told LaporBatam.com:
"My monthly income is down Rp 5 million. Rieke's is down Rp 2.5 million. If the deduction goes through on April 10, that will be eight months of 30 percent cuts."
The Riau Islands Provincial Manpower Head has confirmed that the sanction underpinning these deductions expired after six months. The deductions, by any reasonable legal reading, should have stopped no later than February 2026. They did not.
"The SP3 has passed six months and is no longer valid." Dikky Wijaya, Head of Riau Islands Provincial Manpower Office, April 4, 2026
What the institutions have and have not done
The LaporBatam.com report, read alongside this publication's previous coverage, allows for a clearer accounting of where each institution stands in this case.
The Riau Islands Provincial Manpower Office (Wasnaker Kepri) issued a formal summons to both parties. The employees attended. The company did not. A rescheduled date is pending. An active investigation is underway.
The Batam City Manpower Office (Disnaker Batam) issued a mediator's recommendation in November 2025. That recommendation is now under Ombudsman scrutiny on two grounds: the acceptance of ex-parte evidence outside the official forums, and the 42-day gap between the date the recommendation was issued and the date it was received by the employees. The head of that office told LaporBatam.com on April 7 that he had not yet received a progress report.
The Batam City Legislature (DPRD Batam, Commission IV) held a Public Hearing on March 4, 2026. Company management did not attend, sending instead a postponement letter via ride-hailing courier one hour before the session. A follow-up hearing is being scheduled.
The Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia has opened a formal investigation into the conduct of the Batam City Manpower Office.
The case is heading to the Industrial Relations Court (PHI).
What this case now represents
There is a version of this story that stays local. Two workers, one company, one disputed warning letter, one city in Riau Islands Province.
That version does not account for what has actually accumulated here.
A Provincial Manpower Head who says the sanction has expired. A City Manpower Head who says he hasn't been informed. Twelve media outlets whose confirmation requests have been met with silence. Eight official forums over seven months that the company either avoided, cancelled at the last minute, or attended without decision-makers. A national ombudsman investigating the administrative conduct of a state mediation body. A formal court process beginning.
PT Pegaunihan Technology Indonesia is a subsidiary of Pegatron Corporation of Taiwan, One of Apple's primary global manufacturing partners. In March 2025, Pegatron signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Telkomsel at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, publicly committing to improvements in labor safety standards at PT Pegaunihan.
Four months after that MoU was signed, the First and Final Warning Letters were issued.
PT Pegaunihan Technology Indonesia, under the direction of Taiwanese national Andy Hsieh, has had eight months and twelve media inquiries to explain what happened to Engly Heryanto Ndaomanu and Rieke Dyah Astiwi. The company's answer, on every single occasion, has been the same. Not a defense. Not a correction. Not a statement. Silence.
That silence is now documented across twelve independent sources. It is part of the evidentiary record. And when this case reaches the Industrial Relations Court, it will still be there.
#Pegaunihan #Pegatron #LaborRights #AndyHsieh #Batam #Indonesia #Taiwan #Law #Disnaker #Narti #RiskaYuniar #DPRRI #SPSI
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