Occupational accident rate remains high

Occupational accident rate remains high

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea warned
employers on Monday to be proactive in bringing down the high
rate of occupational accidents, or face stiff penalties for
failure to provide adequate safety for workers.

"We will intensify our supervision of companies, especially
the ones in the chemical and construction sectors, to check
whether or not their management is complying with the law on
health and labor safety," the minister said after signing a
cooperative pact with the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS)
for the development of labor safety technology.

Nuwa Wea expressed his deep concern over the high rate of
occupational accidents partly because of employers' ignorance of
the law.

He said that the number of occupational accidents increased to
more than 66,300 cases in 2000 from an average of 45,000 cases
annually from 1995 to 1999.

"According to our data, in the more than 66,300 accidents, a
total of 4,142 workers were killed, 20,970 others were seriously
injured and more than 87,000 could no longer work. This means
that an average of 13 workers died after workplace accidents
everyday during 2000," he said, citing the labor accidents also
caused losses of 71 million man hours and Rp 340 billion in lost
profit.

Nuwa Wea explained that employers were obliged to provide
health and labor safety for workers employed to do work which
exposed them to hazards.

"The supervision must be intensified especially in chemical
factories, underground mining, construction projects and sea and
land transportation projects," he said.

The law calls for a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment
for companies found guilty of violations.

He admitted that the government has annually awarded companies
who succeeded in reaching zero accidents in their companies but
it was found less effective for small- and middle-sized companies
for financial reasons.

The minister said many of the country's uneducated workers had
a little or no awareness of the health and labor safety
regulations in their work places as many desperate job seekers
had accepted any type of job, even in work places prone to
accidents.