A worker killed every other day

By Teten Masduki

JAKARTA (JP): Blue-collar workers in Indonesia lead a hard existence strapped with long working hours coupled with low wages. They are not only easily fired and repressed but are also prone to deadly occupational accidents.

Keeping up with the industrial growth rate, occupational accidents are registering an increasing rate every year.

A recent report by state-owned workers insurance company Perum Astek reveals that in the first six months of 1997, there were 4,963 worker accident cases claiming 118 lives in an industrial estate in East Java -- an average of 17 deaths a month. In 1995, by comparison, there were only 1,780 cases of occupational accidents claiming 110 lives.

Another report filed by the Bogor branch office of state-owned social securities company Jamsostek cited occupational accidents occurring in Bogor, West Java up to September of this year as having resulted in 31 workers being killed, 103 people permanently disabled and 2,346 injured without being handicapped.

Overwhelming numbers are seen on a provincial scale from Astek which reported that in 1994, West Java saw 18,300 cases of work accidents claiming 118 lives, permanently disabling 7,507 workers and injuring 16,674 people.

This means that one worker was killed every three days. In other words, some 350 occupational accidents on average occurred each month in some of the 19,758 companies joining PT Askes which employ a total of 2,496,399 workers in West Java.

These figures clearly show that in reality occupational safety is far from adequate despite the intensified campaign of the national drive on occupational health and safety, known by its Indonesian acronym as K3, launched three years ago.

Besides technical aspects and working conditions, human errors on the part of both workers and company owners are also responsible for occupational accidents.

Unfortunately, no research has ever been conducted to determine which factor is the main cause of occupational accidents. However, reports of occupational accidents often describe workers being crushed by a machine, coming into contact with hazardous production materials or being caught in a fire.

The government has tried to encourage employers to comply with the K3 standards. Every year since 1987, the government has awarded companies achieving a zero accident rate with a citation. The result is, however, still far from satisfactory. In 1995 alone, out of total of some 150,000 companies across the country, there were only 63 companies awarded with the zero accident citation.

In fact, legislation that provides protection to workers against occupational accidents is not lacking. Law No. 1/1970 on occupational safety, containing K3 preventive provisions, stipulates among other things that workers are entitled to occupational safety while at work. It also states that in guaranteeing this right, companies are obligated to provide healthy working conditions through occupational security and safety facilities.

Management, for example, is required to put up at a work place a notice giving all technical directives on occupational safety, provide workers with free self-protection devices and set up a committee to foster K3 provisions.

Especially with respect to the prevention of a fire at a work place, a company is required to provide technical training to workers on fire prevention and self-rescue methods. Factory buildings must be made of inflammable materials and, while production is going on, exits and entrances must not be locked or blocked. Fire extinguishers must also be provided and placed where they can be easily reached.

It is compulsory for companies to install automatic fire alarm systems which use heat, smoke and flame detectors with a manual call point. This system must go through periodical (weekly, monthly or annual) inspections to be carried out by a fire consultant (stipulated in Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 02/1982).

The issuance of Law No. 2/1992 on Workers' Social Securities also has been encouraging as the government has been intensively promoting and publicizing the law. Workers' social securities contribution fees are compulsory for companies employing a minimum of 10 workers or paying total monthly wages of at least Rp 1 million.

Workers' social securities cover old age, death, permanent disability, occupational accidents and diseases contracted from working conditions. This law has a weak spot, however, in that it is concerned with workers in the formal sector only, while in fact most workers are found in the informal sector.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of constraints hampering the enforcement of this law. Many employers do not register their workers. Others pay workers' social securities contribution fees for their permanent workers but not for their workers employed on a contract basis.

Ironically, it is often the case that the number of contract workers exceeds that of permanent ones. Employers tend to opt for a contract system in their recruitment and will probably maintain this practice for years. It is estimated that prior to 1996, only 41 percent of all companies for which workers' social securities contribution fees were mandatory joined this workers' social securities program.

It may well be that compliance with K3 normative provisions will reduce the rate of occupational accidents and ensure the victims that they will have social securities. At this juncture the government's system of control over the implementation of K3 norms plays an important role.

According to Law No. 1/1970, the enforcement of occupational safety laws is the responsibility of the Minister of Manpower, who in practice delegates the duty to lesser officials and supervisors with special expertise.

Until now, there have been no official reports on the condition of occupational safety and health facilities in companies, or the criminal penalties imposed on companies which fail to comply with K3 provisions. This indicates weak supervision, which derives from an inadequate supervision system and an insufficient number of supervisors.

According to a director in the Ministry of Manpower, the number of companies which should be supervised stands at 150,000 while the Ministry of Manpower has only 1,170 supervisors, of whom only 500 people have K3 expertise.

On top of this, a criminal penalty for those violating manpower laws is very light, carrying only a maximum fine of Rp 100,000 or a maximum sentence of three months in jail.

A tougher penalty of Rp 50 million has been put in place regarding the non-implementation of workers' social security plans. However, in the bigger picture, it must be admitted that the protection of workers' rights still takes a back seat when compared to the national priority of expanding employment opportunities. As a consequence, employers may simply think that the provision to modify their workplaces to comply to K3 provisions would only jack up production costs and reduce their competitive edge.

Therefore, greater emphasis should be placed on the law enforcement and supervision over the implementation of manpower laws and policies, particularly with regard to K3. In this case, social sanctions such as announcing to the public companies which violate K3 norms may be considered amidst the weak criminal penalties at present.

Also, the empowerment of a labor supervision system may be brought about by providing more room for the involvement of workers and/or worker organizations. This may be quite a relevant option to increase supervision since law enforcement is still colored by the interaction between powerholders and economic development players.

The writer is head of the manpower division at the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation, Jakarta