Health and safety

Health and safety

I was delighted to see the front page article on occupational
health and safety (OHS) (The Jakarta Post, Sunday, May 13, 2001)
which outlined the dire situation for Indonesian workers. Indeed
sadly, Indonesia lags behind much of the developing world.
Indonesia's laws and regulations require updating and its
administrative structure needs urgent reform. It is incumbent on
all of us with technical expertise to assist and encourage
Indonesia's transition to modern practice for reasons outlined
below.

The major objection of managers seems to be that their profits
will be consumed by workplace reforms. For too long have
Indonesian enterprise owners behaved like sheltered workshop
proprietors. They have largely escaped taking responsibility for
the health and safety of their workers, unlike their counterparts
in other regions of the world. This has contributed I would
postulate, to the low productivity, competitiveness, and high
labor turnover rates which have been documented recently
(International Institute for Management Development 2001)

What Indonesian owners don't seem to be able to comprehend is
that OHS makes good economic sense. To take care of workers
actually increases profits. You don't have to take my word for
this, but that of Jung Moo Young, the company president of PT
Tong Yang, one of Reebok's subcontractors referred to in your
article. He is on record in Business Week (Nov. 6, 2000) as
saying that the massive outlay of cash required to bring that
factory up to internationally acceptable standards, has resulted
in less accidents, higher productivity and efficiency. He
estimates he will easily regain the amount outlaid in only two
years. Simply put, owners and managers are being short sighted
and misguided if they think that avoiding responsibility for OHS
is going to financially benefit them or the nation.

Tired, stressed and ill workers are not productive; high noise
levels effect performance, the stress induced by irrational
targets only reduces quality, as less attention is able to be
given to individual products. Workers intoxicated by solvent
fumes are also incapable of attention to detail, much less offer
productive work. Managers intoxicated by power and influence
function as badly.

The second point I want to make is that while the worthy
members of Commission VII of the House of Representatives were
shocked at the lack of masks in the factory owned by cigarette
maker, PT Gudang Garam, I, who visited there many years ago, was
more shocked by the high levels of reproductive disorders (in the
main presenting as spontaneous abortion i.e. miscarriage) amongst
the women hand-rolling cigarettes, caused by absorption through
the skin of nicotine, the poor ergonomic conditions that saw
women sitting on unsuitable stools or benches for interminable
hours in overcrowded conditions (ideally suited to the
transmission of TB which affected many of the women), and the
lack of ventilation.

Indonesian workers have been, and continue to be, afraid of
reporting illness and injury in case they are fired. Since the
economic crisis, workers are accepting higher levels of risk.
Because of the systematic failure to educate workers, most are
simply unaware that accidents are preventable and that some
illnesses are the result of working conditions. Instead worker-
blaming is rife.

MELODY KEMP

Balmoral, Brisbane

Australia