Work-related accidents on the rise

JAKARTA: Work-related accidents have increased significantly in the past three years, while health and safety awareness among business enterprises has remained low, a government official says.

"What is more worrisome is business people and workers at small- and medium-sized firms consider health and safety issues as extra expenditure, not essential," National Health and Safety Council (DK3N) official Soekotjo Joedoadmodjo was quoted by Antara as saying on Wednesday.

The latest data, provided by PT Jamsostek, shows that work- related accidents rose from 82,456 in 1999 to 98,902 in 2000 and further to 108,774 in 2001.

From January through June 2002 alone, at least 57,972 accidents were recorded, or an average of 414 job-related accidents every day.

Soekotjo said that DK3N did not have enough resources to supervise the implementation of the health and safety system at over 169,000 firms operating in the country.

"We don't have enough personnel to cover all enterprises," he said, urging firms operating in Indonesia to implement health and safety-based management. --Antara