House, govt amend social security bill

House, govt amend social security bill

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives and the government have made
substantial changes to the much-criticized bill on national
social security, which was due to be endorsed on Wednesday.

The House special committee and the manpower minister, in the
final minutes of their Monday meeting, agreed not to liquidate
state-owned PT Jamsostek, PT Taspen, PT Askes, PT Jasa Raharja
and PT Asabri, which provide social security to workers, civil
servants, servicemen and public transport passengers,
respectively.

"The legislation will function as an umbrella law for all laws
that regulate state-owned social security firms and their
existing programs," special committee chairman Surya Chandra
Surapaty told the press after the committee's last session.

The House is scheduled to hold a plenary session on Tuesday to
endorse the bill, which sparked opposition from employers and
labor unions alike. They challenged the draft as it proposed that
workers insurance firm Jamsostek be merged with the other four
and provide cross-subsidized social security to the unemployed
and the poor.

Djimanto, secretary-general of the Indonesian Employers
Association (Apindo), hailed the amendments to the bill, saying
Apindo would accept the bill as long as it did not overburden
employers and workers.

House special committee member Rekso Ageng Herman said the
government and the committee also agreed to insert a special
article on the establishment of a non-profit agency that falls
directly under the President, tasked with managing trust funds
for the social security programs.

"The five companies will no longer be obliged to pay taxes and
dividends to the government, and their annual profits will be
added to their assets to help improve subscribers' welfare," he
said.

The bill also stipulates that the government is to cover the
membership of the jobless in social security programs, which will
be carried out in phases.

"In the first phase, the government will provide health care
for the unemployed, with their premiums to be drawn from the
annual state budget," Rekso said, adding that finance minister
Boediono had guaranteed that the state would pay the social
security premiums for unemployed people.

Under the draft bill, the government is also to issue a
regulation that defines the unemployed category, as many people
who work less than 35 hours per week or make a monthly income
below the subsistence level -- or disguised unemployment -- are
included in the open unemployment category.

Muzni Tambusai, director general for labor standards at the
Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, told The Jakarta Post
single unemployed people would be charged a health care premium
equivalent to 3 percent of regional minimum wages, while married
unemployed people would be charged 6 percent, and their health
care benefits would be regulated by government legislation.

B.M. Tri Lestari, Jamsostek director of planning, development
and information, lauded the changes to the bill, as employers and
workers considered the previously proposed merger unfair:
Jamsostek had Rp 33 trillion in assets collected from workers and
their employers, while social security for civil servants and
servicemen were covered by the government.