Indonesia's work safety worst in SE Asia: ILO

Indonesia's work safety worst in SE Asia: ILO

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's safety standards remain the worst in Southeast Asia,
as it has the greatest number of workplace accidents, a report
says.

A report issued by the International Labor Organization (ILO)
in conjunction with the World Day of Safety and Health at Work on
Monday, showed that 57,000 accidents took place in companies
throughout the country in the first semester of 2002.

"That is the equivalent of 300 accidents per day," the ILO
said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The report, however, did not provide comparable data from
other countries.

Citing a report submitted by the Indonesian Occupational
Safety and Health Council, ILO said that only 80 percent of some
16,000 local companies had complied with the regulations and had
been granted zero-accident certification.

"The ILO calls for joint efforts to improve worker safety,"
said ILO, stressing that a strong safety and health culture in
all enterprises was a key to preventing both occupational death
and disease.

"Experience has also shown that a strong safety culture is
beneficial, not only for workers, but also for employers and
governments," it said.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri called in January on
companies operating within the country to improve the safety of
their workers.

Worker social insurance company PT Jamsostek reported earlier
that the total number of accidents in 2001 reached 104,000, with
more than 1,000 fatalities, with hundreds of workers suffering
from permanent injuries.

ILO's new global report, Safety in Numbers, indicates that two
million women and men worldwide lose their lives annually as a
result of work-related accidents, injuries or diseases.

That is the equivalent of 5,000 workers per day, or three
people per minute.

The report noted that workers suffered approximately 270
million occupational accidents, of which 355,000 were fatal, and
160 million occupational diseases per year, including some 12,000
child laborers who died from work-related causes.

It further revealed that the toll of workplace illness, injury
and death cost some US$1.25 trillion in annual losses to global
gross domestic product (GDP). That was equal to 4 percent of the
world's GDP.

The report also provides information on how workers and
employers can work hand-in-hand to create a "safety culture" to
improve workplace safety and health.

ILO Director General Juan Somavia says that injury and disease
should not be regarded as "all in a day's work."

"Fatalities, accidents and illness at work can be prevented.
We must promote a new 'safety culture' in the workplace, wherever
work is done, backed by appropriate national policies and
programs."

For this year, the overall theme of the World Day is
"Promoting a Safety and Health Culture in a Globalized World."