Jamsostek told to net informal sector workers

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has renewed its call for state insurance company PT Jamsostek to provide social security programs for more than 60 million workers employed in the informal sector.

Referring to Law No. 3/1992 on social security and Law No. 40/2004 on the national social security system, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris said on Monday that social security programs were basic human rights and the state was obliged to provide such programs to protect workers.

"Jamsostek should not just try to persuade employers to play an active role in the campaign for social security programs. It should take necessary measures to enforce the law so that workers in the formal sector are covered by the programs," Fahmi said in his speech that marked Jamsostek's 28th anniversary.

He said it was strange that while 90 percent of 30 million workers employed in the formal sector have been registered with Jamsostek, 60 million workers employed in the informal sector were left unprotected.

Jamsostek president director Iwan P. Pontjowinoto blamed economic difficulties for the low participation of the country's workforce in the social security programs.

"Almost 20 million workers registered with Jamsostek have become inactive after many companies were forced to stop operations, or who dismissed their workers following the financial crisis of 1997. Even worse, most of the dismissed workers withdrew their savings they deposited under the pension benefit program even though they had not reached the mandatory pension age of 55," he said.

Many employers, he added, opted to recruit workers on a contract basis to avoid insuring them under Jamsostek and paying allowances.

Jamsostek has technical difficulties in wooing workers in the informal sector to join the social security programs because they have no organization, according to Iwan.

"So far, only about 30,000 workers in East Java, Jakarta and Riau Island have participated in health care and pension benefit programs," he said.