Many of the employees, who rallied in front of the PT KA office in Juanda, Central Jakarta, had worked for the company for more than five years.

"Most of us have been hired for years. We have dedicated our lives to the company. It's not fair. The company should hire us as permanent staff," said the demonstration coordinator, Pupu Saepuloh, who has worked for PT KA since 2000.

The employees, who mostly work at ticket counters and ticket checkpoints, are members of the Jakarta Railway Workers Union which organized the demonstration.

Until Monday, they were officially employees of an outsourcing company managed by Kowasjab cooperative, owned by PT KA. As their contract with the outsourcing company ended March 31, they were told to sign a new contract with another outsourcing company, PT Kencana Lima.

"We don't want to be outsourced employees or contract workers for the rest of our lives. We have families to support. We deserve better welfare," Pupu said.

His colleague, Agung, agreed.

"I've been working with PT KA for about 10 years. I don't want to work under the contract system any more. I want to be a permanent member of staff," said Agung, who works at the ticket counter at Gambir station in Central Jakarta.

Pupu said the workers' union had met with PT KA officers on Sunday but the meeting had ended in a deadlock.

The company has some 223 outsourced employees and 181 other temporary workers, PT KA public relations officer Akhmad Sujadi said.

They receive monthly salaries equal to the provincial minimum wage–a little more than Rp 900,000 (about US$96)–and are also insured by state insurance firm Jamsostek.

Akhmad said PT KA would not promote the workers to become permanent staff, saying that anyone who wanted to become a permanent staff member should follow existing recruitment procedures.

"So far, we don't give our contract workers any promotions," Akhmad said, adding that under the new outsourcing company, the workers would receive equal wages and conditions to what they had received previously.