Accident insurance for hard workers

Head of the Jakarta chapter of the All-Indonesian Workers Association Salam Sumangat has said that all seasonal construction workers are entitled to accident insurance.

"All workers who are involved in an accident at work have the right to receive insurance money," Salam said. This remark was made apparently to alleviate confusion as to whether construction workers are entitled to such insurance.

According to Sumangat, the gubernatorial decree requires all developers to protect their seasonal workers by registering them in the government sponsored insurance program.

He said that the family of Sumardi, a construction worker at an apartment project in Mangga Dua, West Jakarta, who was crushed to death by an elevator recently, for example, is eligible to receive insurance of Rp 7 million (US$3,211) from the state-owned insurance company PT Astek. (yns)