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RI seeks ILO help for workers’ protection

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar has asked a leader of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to help improve the protection of around 5 million Indonesians who are currently employed as migrant workers

Ridwan Max Sijabat (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, June 13, 2012

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RI seeks ILO help for workers’ protection

M

anpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar has asked a leader of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to help improve the protection of around 5 million Indonesians who are currently employed as migrant workers.

Muhaimin met with Guy Ryder, who was recently elected as ILO director general, on the sidelines of the International Labor Conference (ILC) in Geneva. Ryder, who is now the ILO’s executive director for international labor standards and fundamental principles and rights at work, will begin his five-year term in October.

Ministry spokesman Suhartono, who accompanied the minister in Geneva, said Tuesday that Muhaimin appealed to Ryder to play his role in lobbying user countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East to comply with the 1990 UN convention on protection of migrant workers and their families or include the convention’s content in their national law.

“The two officials discussed the poor protection of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia and Middle Eastern countries, including the increasing abuse of female migrant workers and the fate of 164 migrant workers facing death row in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia,” Suhartono said.

President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono has set up a presidential task force to provide legal advocacy for Indonesian workers facing death sentences for serious crimes in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia while at the recent ASEAN labor ministerial meeting in Cambodia, Muhaimin called on ASEAN countries to implement the 2007 Cebu Declaration to protect migrant workers in Malaysia and Singapore.

During the meeting with Ryder, Muhaimin also invited the director general elect to visit Indonesia to offer constructive inputs on how to accelerate the ongoing development of the labor sector.

“In addition to seeking the ILO’s assistance for migrant worker protection, the minister also invited Ryder to visit Indonesia in the near future to provide inputs on the legal framework for the planned implementation of the national social security system and to help cope with the unemployment problem,” Suhartono added.

Speaking before tripartite delegations from 184 member countries attending the conference on Monday, the minister campaigned for the national social security system as part of the progress Indonesia has achieved in improving protection for workers.

“With the 2004 national social security system and the 2011 social insurers laws, Indonesia is scheduled to implement the national health care program in January 2014, while the occupational accident, old-age risk and pension benefit programs for workers will begin in July 2015,” Muhaimin said in his speech, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post.

All people with different diseases would be covered by the national healthcare program and workers and their employers will contribute to the four labor social security programs while the poor and the unemployed would pay their payroll at the expense of the state, he added.

The minister explained that the implementation of social security programs with universal coverage and obligatory participation would be a milestone for Indonesia in carrying out the pro-poor, pro-job and pro-growth economic policy.

Muhaimin said the government’s commitment to improving workers’ protection has also been shown in the ongoing review of the 2003 Labor Law and 2004 Overseas Labor Placement and Protection Law, two umbrella laws being revised to provide decent pay for workers at home and to improve the welfare of Indonesian workers overseas.

Delivering his address to the 100th ILC in June 2011, Yudhoyono received a standing ovation from the conference for what he said was the government’s achievements in promoting labor protection and human rights.

Some human rights activists played down the government’s claims of achievement in protecting human rights. They said it was merely political branding to seek international support.

Although the government has endorsed better laws and ratified core ILO and UN conventions, activists said a larger part of workers, both at home and overseas, remained unprotected.

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