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