Background: Indonesia law requires that employers provide a 13th month's salary to all employees the month of their religious holiday. This bonus is very important and highly anticipated. It funds employees’ trips back to their family home and the presents that they are expected to bear. So a mistake in the timing of this bonus can cause serious issues for a facility.
The Problem:
A shoe factory that uses the WOVO platform in Indonesia noticed that it had received an extraordinary number of complaints about payroll. This facility, a factory of 10,000 employees, typically received no more than 10 questions or complaints a day about payroll, but this day, two days before the long holiday, Eid, management had received 50 messages by lunch. Everyone was complaining about not receiving bonuses before Eid.
That year payroll had been centralized and was being calculated at the headquarters in Korea. Management in the Indonesian facility was able to reach out to the Korean team. They quickly realized that they had made a mistake. They had planned to send out the bonus at the end of the month, but the beginning of Eid was before the end of the month, and so the bonuses should have been included in the previous month’s paychecks.
The Solution: The factory was able to quickly remedy this mistake by sending broadcast messages to all employees letting them know of the mistake and that the company was issuing a midmonth paycheck with the bonus. The factory management believes that because it quickly discovered its mistake and was able to immediately communicate with all employees, they were able to avoid a potential strike.