Union calls for urgent reform of PT Jamsostek

Union calls for urgent reform of PT Jamsostek

JAKARTA (JP): Labor leaders blasted yesterday state-owned
insurance company PT Jamsostek, which has collected billions of
rupiah in workers' contributions, for failing its clients in this
time of need.

The leaders of the Federation of All-Indonesia Workers Union
said they had not heard of any money being spent recently to help
the millions of workers who had lost their jobs in the economic
crisis.

The state-owned workers' insurance company should be
overhauled so it becomes more worker-oriented, the labor leaders
said in a media briefing in conjunction with the union's 25th
anniversary yesterday.

"We have not seen any contribution from Jamsostek to those who
lost their jobs in the economic crisis," chairman Datuk Bagindo
said in the briefing attended by his deputies Bomer Pasaribu and
Wilhelmus Bokha.

"Those in the company seem to have forgotten that Jamsostek
was established in 1974 for the workers' welfare," said Datuk.
"Now the workers are being left out by the management when they
decide on how to spend the money."

Datuk said now was the time to bring home the message that the
workers should also be included in the company's ownership.

"We should question whether the government is the only party
entitled to hold shares in the company," Datuk said.

He hinted the federation might call on workers to cancel their
membership if the government continued to ignore them in
decisions regarding fund disbursement.

Datuk also called for an end to Jamsostek's monopoly to manage
workers' social insurance.

The company and Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief were widely
criticized last year following revelations that they spent
billions of rupiah to smooth the passage of the manpower bill
through the House of Representatives. The legislation was already
controversial as it allegedly neglected workers' rights.

The company was also criticized for its funding of the
construction of the Rp 319.5 billion (US$32 million) Jamsostek
Tower.

Latief predicted Thursday that unemployment in the
agricultural sector for this year would reach 18.4 million from
9.1 million last year. He attributed the dire prediction to
damaged paddy fields and failed crops in the long drought last
year.

He also estimated that about 8.7 million more people would be
out of work by the end of this year. The figure consists of 2.7
million fresh high school graduates who are joining the labor
market for the first time, 4.5 million who were already
unemployed and 1.5 million people who will be laid off this year.

The federation has predicted that as many as 13.5 million
people could lose their jobs due to the economic slump this year.

Meanwhile, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has
appealed to the government to channel the recently unemployed
people to the informal sector.

ILO deputy director Rizanul Islam said at a meeting of
manpower officials Thursday that the informal sectors could
absorb a large number of workers.

Islam said the challenges for the government in channeling the
unemployed were to provide them with the necessary
entrepreneurial spirit and funding.

Islam said the labor-intensive programs which the government
had introduced were right. However, he said, in the longer term,
newly unemployed workers should be empowered by the government in
order for them to survive. (byg)