Tangerang firms owe Jamsostek Rp 5 billion

Tangerang firms owe Jamsostek Rp 5 billion

TANGERANG (JP): Firms have postponed or failed to pay Rp 5
billion (US$606,606) in workers' insurance per month since
January to the Tangerang branch of the state-owned social
security company PT Jamsostek, an official said yesterday.

The mass layoff of workers has also had an impact on the
amount of monthly fees Jamsostek collects from firms as nearly
10,000 people are no longer on the payroll.

But the main source of the shortfall is private companies
which have postponed their payments due to the current monetary
crisis, the Jamsostek's office manager Salim RA. Toha said.

"Many companies have asked for a rescheduling of their
workers' insurance payments of between two weeks and four months
because of the financial difficulties they are encountering."

Salim said 10 manufacturing companies, which employ at least
5,000 employees each, must pay about Rp 300 million per month
each.

The companies were allowed to postpone their payments, but
they will be charged interest at a rate of 2 percent a month, he
said.

Salim explained that the decline in premium payments was also
caused by massive layoffs by construction companies and
development companies in the area.

"The worker dismissals do affect the payment of the insurance
premium."

Data from Jamsostek's Tangerang branch shows that the company
used to receive premium payments amounting to tens of billions of
rupiah each month for at least 520,000 workers employed at 1,486
companies.

Chairman of the Tangerang branch of the Indonesian Employers
Association (Apindo) M. Nasir DS. urged employers to avoid
further worker layoffs.

"We hope the employers can come up with other alternatives,
such as reducing production hours... instead of laying off their
workers," Nasir said.

The Tangerang manpower office said nearly 10,000 workers had
been laid off during the crisis and the number was expected to
continue increasing as the office was still processing proposals
by other companies for further worker dismissals. (41/jun)