Clampdown urged on firms ignoring labor safety
Clampdown urged on firms ignoring labor safety
JAKARTA (JP): The government should impose firmer sanctions on construction companies that fail to ensure the safety of their workers, according to a member of the House of Representatives.
The head of the House's Commission V, which oversees labor affairs, Erie Soekardja, said the government's current sanctions are too light.
The government issued a regulation in 1970 stipulating that owners of the companies that fail to protect their staff during working hours face three months imprisonment or a Rp 100,000 ($45) fine.
According to Erie, the penalty is too light, in view of the fact that construction workers have a high-risk job. "It is the company's full responsibility for any accidents befalling them," he told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
"Accidents could be caused by either the workers' negligence or the company's lack of control of the equipment," Erie added.
He said that even if an accident is caused by a worker's mistakes, the company is still held responsible.
"The company should continue to see to it that its staff work safely and operate all equipment properly," he said.
"Therefore tougher sanctions should be imposed on companies who fail to protect the safety of their workers, urging them to be more alert.
However, the head of the workers supervision section of the regional office of the Ministry of Manpower, Soekoyo, told the Post yesterday that few of the accidents that are registered with his office have resulted in any of the company's top officials being imprisoned.
Compensation
"It's the court that decides, but most cases have ended with companies paying a sum of money in compensation ranging from Rp 150,000 to Rp 6 million," Soekoyo said.
Citing an example, he said none of the accidents which happened last year ended with the businessmen being jailed.
In fact, he said, after going through legal procedures and based on police investigations over deaths in accidents that were not suicide, an agreement was finally reached with the companies paying a sum of money in compensation.
An agreement on the compensation is sometimes reached based on talks between officials of the Ministry of Manpower, the insurance company and the construction company concerned.
An accident that led to the death of two construction workers in South Jakarta on Monday is the latest example of compensationbeing agreed.
The heirs of Mulyono and Sulistiono, two workers of the Duta Graha construction company who fell from the 13th floor of Darmawangsa apartment, will get Rp 2 million each from the company in addition to Rp 10 million each from the insurance company PT Astek.
The workers were found dead with their bodies unidentified after they fell from the building because the sling (steel rope) of the crane bucket which was carrying them broke.
Meanwhile, the chief detective of the South Jakarta Police, Maj. Charles H. Ngili said that the police are still investigating the case by interviewing several eyewitnesses and the foreman.
"So far we can only conclude that the accident was caused by the broken sling," he told reporters yesterday.(03/04)