Health, safety in the workplace neglected

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.