T

he majority of workers in the handicraft industry in Yogyakarta and Central Java are paid below the regional minimum wage (UMR) and enjoy neither health nor employment insurance coverage through the national Social Security Management Agencies (BPJS).

'€œIt'€™s impossible for us to cover or coordinate BPJS insurances for workers,'€ Immaroh, the owner of the Sri Kuncoro batik workshop in Wukirsari, Imogiri, Bantul regency, Yogyakarta, told The Jakarta Post recently.

She said the handmade batik industry that she works in was facing several challenges, including the uncontrolled flood of cheaper foreign products into the country.

'€œFinancially we cannot afford coverage for BPJS employment insurance for our workers. We feel lucky if we can survive these uncertain economic conditions,'€ said Immaroh, who employs six female workers in her batik production.

She said she considered the payment procedure for BPJS insurance premiums complicated and time-consuming and that she felt uneasy about cutting workers'€™ wages for the purpose, as the wages were everything to them.

Jumakir, a producer of various handicraft products made of seashells, said that it was impossible for an employer to cut a worker'€™s wage by subtracting BPJS insurance premiums, because most of the workers'€™ income was already below the UMR.

'€œWhen orders increase, they also receive more. But this does not happen every day,'€ said Jumakir from Bantul.

At the same time, he as the employer could not pay for the premium on his workers'€™ behalf, he said, because doing so was overly burdening.

'€œMost of my products indeed are for export, but I am just a producer. It'€™s the exporters that earn high profits,'€ Jumakir said.

Yogyakarta province is home to more than 10,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) making handicraft products. Each employs between four and 10 workers, with total revenues amounting to tens of millions of US dollars.

In the city of Surakarta, Central Java, the story of workers in the handicraft industry was much the same. Most of them are paid below the UMR and are not covered by health or employment insurance from the BPJS.

Umiyatun, 43, who works for a home industry producing woven sarongs in Semanggi village, Pasar Kliwon, Surakarta, for example, earns only Rp 30,000 (US$2.14) per day, which she receives every weekend.

If orders were good, she said, she could work for six days a week. Otherwise, she could only work for three to four days a week.

She earns an average of Rp 1 million a month while this year'€™s UMR for Surakarta is Rp 1,222,400.

It is therefore not surprising that Umiyatun has to seek additional income when a member of her family is admitted to hospital for medical treatments, as she was not covered by BPJS health insurance, while the company she works for did not give her working safety or health allowances.

Widodo, 45, who works as a rattan souvenir home industry in Trangsan subdistrict, Gatak district, Sukoharjo regency, Central Java, and earns Rp 960,000 monthly while the regency'€™s UMR was Rp 1,223,000, told the same story.

'€œMy kid was sick once. I had to go here and there to seek for a loan. I know very little about BPJS,'€ said Widodo, an elementary school graduate.