Workers denied medical care: Ministry
Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The government needs to revise its policy on workers' welfare, as most of the country's workers do not have access to medical services at work, an official says.
Recent data from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration showed only 1,173 of approximately 170,000 small, medium and large enterprises provided health care services recognized by the government to workers.
"It's a sad fact, given that we enforced Law No. 13/2003 on labor, which requires companies to provide medical services for employees," Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration secretary general Tjepy F. Aloewie told a seminar on occupational health and safety on Wednesday.
Article 87 of the law requires all companies to apply an integrated safety and health program to protect their employees.
A Central Statistics Agency survey in 1995 revealed that each year, a company lost an average 1.05 productive days due to illnesses, which cost the country over Rp 2.1 trillion (US$2.3 billion) from the decline in productivity.
The survey assumed that one person within the productive age group of between 26 and 40 years old was capable of earning Rp 15,000 a day.
"We also have a ministerial decree on employee medical services, but its implementation is far from satisfactory, as only a very few employee medical services are recognized," said Tjepy.
Ministerial Decree No. Per. 03/Men/1982 on employee medical services provides three options: The company can provide its own medical services, cooperate with doctors or medical institutions or cooperate with other companies in providing employee medical services.
"The bottom line is, we need to develop a pilot project on medical centers for workers, as otherwise, more and more employees will suffer from poor health, which will contribute to national economic losses," said Tjepy.
Despite the regulations and legislation on workers' health and safety, Indonesia has not ratified a 1985 International Labor Organization convention on occupational health services.