New insurance scheme for workers unveiled

New insurance scheme for workers unveiled

JAKARTA (JP): The government has introduced a new insurance
scheme for Indonesians working overseas, in a bid to raise
sufficient funds to protect them better in the future.

Speaking at a year-end media conference here yesterday,
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief admitted failures in his
office's handling of many labor problems in the past. He blamed
it on an absence of funds.

He said the insurance fund would be managed by a consortium of
insurance companies and supervised by the government.

"The scheme is being established because, in our experience,
there have been many problems that we have failed to handle
thoroughly because there has not been adequate funds available,"
he said.

Thousands of Indonesians in abroad are vulnerable to
mistreatment. Many are arbitrarily laid off, sometimes without
pay, before their contracts expire, without having any recourse
to legal assistance.

Latief said efforts to protect the country's workers abroad
were "absolutely needed", and that the new scheme would serve the
purpose.

"A social insurance program like the one offered by PT
Jamsostek cannot meet the real needs (of the workers) because its
compensation is too small," he said, referring the state-owned
workers' welfare insurance company.

Jamsostek gives compensation of Rp 2.2 million (US$440) to the
beneficiaries of a worker who dies. It also provides 60 times a
worker's basic monthly salary if he or she sustains injuries in
work-related accidents.

Latief said the new scheme would offer at least six guarantees
to its policyholders, including US$1,800 in compensation for
death, plus additional expenses for repatriating the body. There
will also be compensation of $900 for workers who lose their jobs
before completing their contracts.

"Employers will be required to pay their employees' insurance
premium fees," Latief said.

He said these ranged from US$40 per year, or $3.33 per month
for those sent to Saudi Arabia, $22.50 or $1.87 per month for
those sent to the other Middle East countries, to Singapore, Hong
Kong, Malaysia and Brunei.

The insurance premium fee for those sent to Taiwan is $32, or
$2.66 per month.

"It's a two-year insurance scheme," Latief said.

Latief said a trial run was begun last April and would be
evaluated in two years time.

There are 144,000 participants so far, but by October next
year the scheme will be made an obligation for the employers of
all workers sent abroad, Latief said.

It was revealed yesterday that the new insurance scheme has so
far generated $10 million. Latief said the claims of 1,682
workers, who had been laid off before their work contracts were
completed, had been paid. The beneficiaries of 68 workers who
died had also received compensation.

"We cannot let workers be sent abroad unprotected," said the
minister who was accompanied yesterday by, among others, his
secretary-general, Suwarto, and the chairman of the Association
of Indonesian Labor Exporters (Apjati), Abdullah Puteh.

"We want our workers to be more aware of the need of having
insurance," he said.

Apjati data shows that 951,585 Indonesian workers have been
legally sent to countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the United
States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Labor rights activists have often criticized the government
for exporting unskilled workers who were prone to abuse by their
employers. Latief himself had once admitted that he shed tears
over the plight of many migrant workers.

The criticism over the migrant workers came to a head earlier
this year when the Saudi Arabian government beheaded Soleha Anam
Kadiran who was found guilty of killing her employer for
repeatedly sexually abusing her. (aan)