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)