Labor unions urged to help enforce law on social security
Labor unions urged to help enforce law on social security
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek
called on labor unions to help promote the 1992 law on social
security programs for workers, saying the way the government
enforces the law is not effective enough.
Junaidi, the newly appointed president of PT Jamsostek, said
labor unions could play an active role in monitoring the
enforcement of the law.
"We want labor unions to be our partners in encouraging
employers to participate in the programs because Jamsostek has no
authority to enforce the law," he told the congress of the
transportation trade union here on Saturday.
He also suspected many employers have been involved in
collusive practices with supervisory staff from the manpower and
transmigration ministry to evade payment of the mandatory budget
for social insurance for their workers, thereby violating the
law.
"We found there are collusive practices in the field and we
have reported these cases to the manpower and transmigration
ministry," he said.
According to the findings, some employers registered only a
small number of their employees with Jamsostek while many others
reported misleading data on their workers' wage structures in an
attempt to reduce to a minimum their financial obligation to the
insurance company.
"Such malpractice has brought a loss to workers participating
in the programs because the financial benefits those workers
stand to gain from the programs depends mostly on their monthly
premium and on how long they have participated in the social
security programs," he said.
He speculated that the malpractice was mostly connected with
the manpower and transmigration ministry's monopoly in enforcing
the law.
Jamsostek has proposed that the government revise the law to
allow the insurance company and labor unions to enforce the law,
he said.
According to the law, of the total 9.24 percent of workers'
monthly salaries channeled into the programs, employers are
obliged to contribute 7.24 percent while the remaining two
percent for the pension fund is collected from the workers.
The programs which are mandatory for companies employing 10
workers or more comprise of a health-care scheme (between 3
percent and 6 percent), an occupational accident scheme (between
1.24 percent and 1.7 percent, pension funds (5.7 percent) and a
death scheme (0.3 percent).
Junaidi said labor unions through their units in companies
could check on whether their members have been registered in the
social security programs.
"Such a role should be played by labor unions to improve
protection of their members," he said.
He said so far, only 15 million workers out of a workforce of
around 80 million have participated in the program and the total
funds collected for the programs have reached Rp 11 trillion
(US$1.2 billion).
He said employers should not see the social security programs
only as a mandatory obligation and a financial burden they have
to shoulder, but as a collaborative partnership to help improve
protection for their workers.
"With the social security programs, employers could forge a
partnership with Jamsostek to tackle labor issues in their
company while they could concentrate on their own business," he
said.
He added Jamsostek has also planned to approach associations
of becak drivers and street vendors in the informal work sector
to participate in the programs. (rms)