Tougher action for manpower supplier firms

Tougher action for manpower supplier firms

JAKARTA (JP): The government will not show any leniency toward
manpower supplier companies which are poorly managed by simply
declining to renew their operational licenses, a senior official
of the Ministry of Manpower said.

Director General for Manpower Placement Abdul Rachim said
these companies are dealing with people, not goods, and therefore
professionalism is of the utmost importance.

Their primary concern should be in facilitating workers to
find jobs overseas, and not in making profits, he said on Monday.
"These companies are exporting workers who need to be protected."

The Ministry of Manpower tightened last August the rules
regulating the lucrative, yet highly disordered, business of
sending Indonesian workers overseas.

Some 310 companies were told to beef up their capital, set up
their own workers' training program and re-register with the
Ministry. To date, out of 180 applications received by the
government only 29 companies have been issued new licenses.

"Companies which are poorly managed will be asked to stop
their operations because they could tarnish Indonesia's image and
affect our workers abroad," Abdul Rachim said.

He warned that not all of the 310 companies will be issued
with new licenses. Their past records will be scrutinized when
their applications are considered.

He made the statement after witnessing the signing of a
memorandum of understanding between PT Luhur Asa Vrima, a
manpower supplier firm, the East Java-based Islamic boarding
school Darul Ulum and the state-run Academy of Sailors in Jakarta
on Monday. The agreement allows the company to recruit graduates
from the two institutions to be sent overseas.

Abdul Rachim suggested that companies which cannot meet the
tough terms, under the new regulations, look for other
businesses.

Sources at the Ministry of Manpower said four manpower
supplier companies have had their applications for new licenses
turned down because of their past poor records.

A company in Jakarta was rejected because a woman it recruited
from Wonosobo, Central Java, died while under its charge amidst
accusations that the company's executives were mistreating the
workers before sending them overseas.

Another company based in Malang, East Java, was rejected
because it forged the ID cards of workers it sent to Singapore by
declaring them Christians instead of Moslems.

A company in Surabaya, East Java, was rejected because it cut
the salaries of the workers it sent.

The fourth, a Jakarta-based company, was turned down because
of allegations that some of the female workers were raped by the
company executives before they were sent abroad, the sources
said.

A government official has appealed for an end to the practice
of price-war among manpower supplier companies in competing for a
larger share of the market.

Suramsihono, president of state-owned PT Binajasa Karya (PT
Bijak), said the price war is not only hurting the companies, but
also the government and the workers.

PT Bijak, a subsidiary of the state-owned insurance company PT
Astek, recently started its operations by supplying skilled
Indonesian workers to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. (rms)