Govt to end Jamsostek's monopoly
JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie has agreed to end the monopoly of the state-owned PT Jamsostek to run social security programs for workers, a minister said yesterday.
Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris said the government would soon revise law No. 3/1992 to enable other institutions to work in the social security business.
The minister said private companies, cooperatives and other state-owned companies would be allowed to operate in the sector after the revision of the law.
"By doing so, workers will have many choices of insurance," Fahmi said after meeting the president and executives of the Association of Labor Export Companies (Apjati) at the Bina Graha presidential office.
The minister, previously a successful businessman, also said Jamsostek must be managed by a tripartite board of directors.
"The company's management must represent workers, employers and the government because the funds managed by the company come from workers, not from the government," he said.
According to the law at present, companies employing at least 10 workers, or with an annual payroll of more than Rp 1 million, are obliged to participate in the insurance program.
Financial scandals continue to haunt the insurance company. The Attorney General's Office is still investigating alleged corruption in the construction of the PT Jamsostek Tower on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta.
About 160,000 cigarette factory workers in Kudus, Central Java, announced last month that they would quit the social security scheme and set up their own insurance body.
The workers said the company only remembered to collect money from workers but tended to ignore its obligations.
"Workers must be fully involved in the management," Fahmi acknowledged.
"When all of the barriers are abolished, Apjati is optimistic that Indonesia can send about one million workers abroad," Puteh noted.
Fahmi said the government has abolished the requirement to pay up to US$100 for each Indonesian worker being sent abroad.
"I have abolished this unnecessary obligation," Fahmi noted.
Puteh said his organization had demanded former minister of manpower Abdul Latief return about $10 million he collected from workers when he was a minister from 1993 to March 1998.
Latief collected the fund through the Foundation of Indonesian Human Resources Development (YPSDMI), which he chaired, and insisted that he had used the fund properly for workers' interests.
"The dispute between YPSDMI and Apjati is purely a civil case and the government will not interfere," Fahmi said. (prb)