Labor export frims protest over workers' poor protection

JAKARTA (JP): Around 200 labor export companies have threatened to cancel their partnership with local insurance companies following their failure to provide protection for around 1,000 workers in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

The chairman of the Association of Indonesian Labor Export Companies, Saleh Alwaini, said on Wednesday more than 200 member companies may stop paying the premium for the workers sent overseas in protest for the poor protection workers have been given.

"According to the 1998 Ministerial Decree on labor protection, insurance companies covering workers overseas are obliged to provide protection, including legal assistance, accommodation and severance pay and repatriation fees, for the workers," Saleh said on Wednesday.

He said that of the 1,000 complaints received from workers in 1998, 800 were from workers in Saudi Arabia and 200 from workers in Malaysia. The complaints included arbitrary dismissal, withholding of wages, and even rape and torture.

The association said it would ask its member companies to share responsibility for the cases.

Asked about the recent report that 80 workers were stranded for two months in Saudi Arabia, Saleh said the insurance company should be held responsible.

"If it refuses to handle the cases, we will stop paying premiums for the workers and will ask labor export companies themselves to provide insurance for the Indonesian workers overseas," he said.

The 80 workers, sent by PT Nur Afalah, a labor supply firm, last November, went on a strike when they discovered they were to be employed in department stores in Riyadh. Their contracts said they were sent to Saudi Arabia to work in hotels.

S. Udi Joewono, a representative of the Beringin insurance company, said he had not been informed of the case.

"The labor export companies have the right to withdraw their participation in our insurance scheme, but they should have consulted us first," he said.

He also promised to protect the 80 workers.

In a related development, the labor companies' association and state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek announced that they have given Rp 5 million to Imas Enan, a worker from Karawang in West Java, who was tortured by her Saudi Arabian employer last September. Imas' face and other parts of her body were badly injured when the employer threw acid at her.

Jamsostek's spokesman Ronny Irawan said the money was to compensate for Imas' suffering.

All Indonesian workers employed overseas are obliged to pay Rp 140,000 in premium to local insurance firms. (rms)