Social security fund should be repaid to the workers: Expert

Social security fund should be repaid to the workers: Expert

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The Rp 6 trillion (about US$600 million)
state social security fund should be repaid to the workers who
contributed to it to help alleviate their hardship in this time
of crisis, an expert has proposed.

Tadjuddin Noer Effendi, an advisor to the minister of
manpower, said Wednesday that as millions of workers had already
lost and more would lose their jobs, the cash would mean a lot to
them.

The labor-intensive programs that the government has initiated
benefit mostly blue color workers; middle and upper level
employees who lose their jobs find it more difficult to obtain
new employment, he said.

Tadjuddin, who is a senior researcher at Gadjah Mada
University's Population Studies Center, said the rightful owners
of the fund that the government manages as working capital were
those who contributed to it.

"Repaying the money would be better than using it to pay House
of Representatives members deliberating labor laws (as recently
happened)," he said.

Tadjuddin hailed the labor-intensive schemes the government
has sponsored to alleviate poverty in the wake of the prolonged
economic crisis.

Such projects, he said, were necessary to help ease social
tension caused by soaring prices and mounting unemployment.

"It is a good short-term solution for blue-collar workers,
such as construction laborers. The projects will be needed until
economic growth reaches about 5 percent."

Tadjuddin estimated the number of unemployed at more than 10
million. (44)