21,000 workers duped by insurers

JAKARTA: A labor observer warned the government of an emerging crisis from after some sort of tacit permission was granted to three unauthorized private companies to run an insurance scheme for workers employed overseas.

So far, the three companies have collected Rp 3.4 billion (US$400,000) from at least 21,000 workers who paid Rp 160,000 each in premiums.

"The three companies are not included on the list of five companies authorized by the Finance Ministry to run the insurance plan for Indonesian workers overseas," Luthfi A. Hamdoen, also a labor activist, said here on Thursday.

He chose not to identify the three companies, but recent reports claimed that PT Wali Amanah was one of the three that had been collecting premiums from workers employed in the Middle East.

Under the Article 8 of Law No. 2/1992 on insurance, the Finance Ministry has authorized only five insurance companies to for the insurance program for Indonesian workers overseas. The five are PT Asuransi Jasindo, PT Asuransi Bumi Putra Muda, PT Asuransi Bina Griya Upakara, PT Parolamas and PT Asuransi Jiwa Life.

"We should learn from the collapse in the past of an insurance company which collected US$28 million in insurance, which is mainly meant to protect the workers interests, but thousands of workers who got into some trouble in their work place had never received any support or compensation," said Luthfi. -- JP