Jamsostek pays Rp 1.6t to workers

JAKARTA: State-owned social insurance company PT Jamsostek paid out a total of almost Rp 1.6 trillion in social security benefits to workers in 2002.

Joko Sungkono, Jamsostek's operations director, said here on Saturday that the money had been paid in compensation or benefits to more than 670,300 workers who suffered fatal or non-fatal accidents in the workplace, or who had retired.

"Jamsostek paid Rp 158 billion in compensation to more than 103,800 workers who were involved in occupational accidents, Rp 1.2 trillion to retired workers, Rp 50 billion for those who died in the workplace, and Rp 114 billion for the medical care of more than 7.9 million workers," he said.

Djoko called on chemical and construction companies to provide the necessary safety equipment for their workers to reduce occupational accidents to a minimum.

He also said that PT Jamsostek had paid out more than Rp 56 billion to finance training programs to improve workers' skills

So far, a total of more than 21,657,000 workers employed by 107,000 companies were enrolled in the social security scheme. --JP