The House of
Representatives finished on Tuesday the final draft of the newly endorsed bill
on social security providers (BPJS) and handed it over to the government for
enactment.
Ferdiansyah, deputy chairman of a special House committee that prepared the
bill, said members of the committee and a government team had fine-tuned the
draft over four days.
“The final touches include the insertion of the House’s last agreement in the
draft, congruousness, transitional regulations and explanations of all its
substance,” he told The Jakarta Post after the meeting here on Tuesday.
The House passed the bill into law on Oct. 28, 2011, without any final draft,
including transitional regulations and content explanations, because the
special committee and the government had failed to agree on the contentious
issue of the transformation of state-owned insurance companies PT Askes, PT
Jamsostek, PT Taspen and PT Asabri.
All factions and the government unanimously agreed in the plenary session that
Askes would be transformed into a public company to provide the healthcare
program starting as of Jan. 1, 2014, while Jamsostek will provide the labor
social security programs – occupational safety, old-age risk, pension and death
benefit schemes— as of July 1, 2015.
Some
workers and employers have criticized the law’s endorsement as scandalous.
Ferdiansyah said further that the final draft was handed over to the State Secretariat
for a final check and its enactment by the President within 30 days.
“The final draft will be distributed to all 560 lawmakers after its final check
and enactment by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,” he said.
Separately, the Committee of Action for Social Security Programs (KAJS), an
alliance of labor unions and student associations supporting the bill, said it
had established a special team to monitor the law’s implementation and the
transformation of the four state-owned enterprises into public companies.
“Through the social security watchdog, we will continue monitoring the
implementation of the new law and of the 2004 National Social Security System Law
to make sure that the people, including workers, receive healthcare benefits
and labor program benefits in a timely manner,” said KAJS secretary-general
Said Iqbal. (rms)
