Health, safety in the workplace neglected

It is public knowledge that very few companies and employers in Indonesia treat their employees as their principal assets. Occupational health and safety are often ignored. Work-related illnesses and injuries are commonplace. The Jakarta Post's Rita A. Widiadana and Emmy Fitri look into the problem.

JAKARTA (JP): It has not been a happy year for former taxi driver Ali Budiman (not his real name), aged 49, who was shot in the left leg a year ago when he tried to save his passenger from being robbed.

Now, Ali can hardly move his leg and he can barely work to support his family of five.

"When I had the accident, my company gave me some money as compensation plus a little extra to help cover the medical costs. That's all. I had to resign because I could not continue to work," Ali recalled.

Ali considered the company's treatment "unfair" for an employee like him who had been injured while at work.

He faithfully served the firm for almost 10 years. "There was no security to protect me and my fellow drivers. No health insurance, pension fund or the sort of safety guidelines that are necessary for such a risky job," Ali complained.

Ali's case is only one of the numerous sobering tales that can be told by Indonesian workers.

Markum, 30, contracted tuberculosis and other serious respiratory problems from long-term exposure to the hazardous chemical substances that he inhaled daily at a factory in Tangerang, around 30 kilometers west of the capital, where he worked for around five years.

"At first, I developed a bad cough and suffered terrible headaches every time I came home from work," Markum recounted.

Markum did not take his health problems seriously and only took over-the-counter drugs such as Komix or Panadol to cure his cough and frequent fevers.

But things got very much worse when he bagan coughing up blood. "My doctor explained that my working environment was filled with dangerous pollutants which could affect the employees' health," Markum said, adding that his boss did not believe or want to believe that the conditions in the factory were the cause of his and many other workers' ailments.

"When I tried to claim my medical expenses, he gave me only one option -- quit," said Markum, who chose to resign and look after his health.

Dr. Tan Malaka, chairman of the Indonesian Occupational Health and Safety Association (AHKKI) admitted that the health and safety standards applicable to the majority of Indonesian workers were below those in neighboring countries.

Indonesia lags behind Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore in managing occupational health and safety, he said.

Ignorance

"A large number of companies pay no attention to the risks facing their employees who work in hazardous and dangerous working environments," Malaka told participants at a recent seminar on occupational health and safety awareness at the Kartika Chandra Hotel, Jakarta. The seminar was organized by AHKKI and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

Malaka urged employers to increase their awareness and understanding of their employees' health and safety and provide a safer working environment for the workers, to support ill workers and to safeguard them from preventable accidents.

He added that poor attention to safety issues had been compounded by employer misinterpretations and lack of knowledge of the health and safety standards required of all companies.

"Some companies think it's enough if they provide a company doctor or a clinic," Malaka said, adding that for some this may be adequate, but for others (high-risk environments) it was certainly not enough.

It is no exaggeration to say that most local employees labor in harmful working environments.

During their visit to a number of cigarette factories in East Java last September, for instance, members of Commission VII of the House of Representatives (DPR) were shocked to find that the more than 38,682 workers of the PT Gudang Garam cigarette company in Kediri wore no protective masks while working in the humid and polluted factory.

Other gloomy facts were revealed by a comprehensive study conducted by the Baltimore-based Global Alliance for Workers and Community, a nonprofit consortium involving, among others, footwear-producer Nike and the World Bank.

The study discovered that 30 percent of the 115,000 workers in Nike-related factories in Indonesia have experienced verbal, physical or sexual abuse. More than 45 percent of these workers complained that it was difficult to apply for sick leave or healthcare provision.

Another American shoe and sportswear company, Reebok, also made a study on the condition of Indonesian workers in the factories of subcontractors making Reebok products.

PT Done Joe Indonesia and PT Tong Yang were found to be neglecting the working environment in their factories.

The two factories allegedly produced toxic chemical substances, dust, ultraviolet radiation and other hazardous elements that had the potential to seriously affect the health of more than 10,000 people working in them.

Malaka said that among major industrial companies, only those operating in the oil and gas sector had adequate established safety and health procedures for their employees.

Meanwhile, other employees subject to high-risk conditions are those working in construction, transportation, shipping, mining, persons required to work with heavy machinery, and those exposed to dangerous chemical substances, and high levels of noise and dust.

Another occupational health expert, Dr. Zulmiar Yanri, added that Indonesia already has Law No 1 of l977 on occupational health stipulating that employers are obliged to provide workers with pre-employment health examinations and periodic medical checkups.

"Up to now, most companies ignore or violate this law," Yanri said.

Data from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration show that there are 168,363 small, medium and large companies operating in Indonesia. But only 1,579 companies, mostly the large-scale ones, have instituted proper healthcare programs and health surveillance for their employees.

Recorded accidents in the workplace soared from only 65,949 cases in l995 to 80,542 cases in l999.

"These figures only represent the reported cases. We don't know how many more unreported cases occurred throughout the country," Yanri said.

Yanri, a medical doctor, pointed out that employers are not the only ones to blame for this problem. Workers and labor unions also have to shoulder some of the responsibility for not prioritizing health and safety in their struggle for better conditions.

"Traditionally, Indonesian workers have little knowledge concerning the legal aspects. They have always been very slow to complain or seek professional advice about pursuing a claim when health and safety becomes an issue," he concluded.

Monitoring by government agencies is slack and law enforcement is weak. Rarely do recalcitrant companies get punished. Healthcare professionals are also responsible for regularly monitoring and providing information on the real condition of workers, the doctor said.

"Unfortunately, there are only 600 doctors nationwide specializing in occupational health who are registered with the association," Yanri noted.

Occupational health doctors have the responsibility to report any cases of work-related diseases. This is important as input for a company in making preventive medical assessments.

But who cares about medical reports? The problem is that neither the employers nor their employees are willing to accept any of them fearing that they could endanger their businesses or their jobs.

In a time of crisis, employers will do anything to exploit their workers in order to survive. Saddest of all, workers will continue to brave health and physical threats only to earn a meager amount of money to buy sustenance for their families.