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Bank Mandiri employees donate salary to support informal workers hit by pandemic
The donation will provide Rp 750,000 (US$45.70) per month for three months to each of a total of 1,000 informal workers.
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A scavenger carrying a baby pulls her cart while her daughter walks behind her in the Mega Kuningan area in South Jakarta in this undated photo. (The Jakarta Post/PJ Leo)
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tate-owned Bank Mandiri’s employees are donating part of their salary to ease the economic burden on informal workers who have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The donation will provide Rp 750,000 (US$46) per month for three months to each of a total of 1,000 informal workers, including parking attendees, online taxi drivers, street vendors and scavengers to ensure their monthly income amid the pandemic, according to Bank Mandiri human resources director Agus Dwi Handaya.
Read also: Bank Mandiri gives one-year life insurance plans to 35,000 medical workers
“We will transfer Rp 750,000 to each person through the LinkAja [e-wallet] platform,” he said as quoted in a statement on Tuesday.
Informal workers, who rely on daily earnings, are particularly affected by the social distancing policy to contain the virus, which limits people’s movement and disrupts businesses.
More than 70 million informal workers in Indonesia are extremely vulnerable in the economic downturn driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they are unregistered, unregulated and unprotected by a proper social safety net, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Informal workers account for more than 55 percent of the country’s total workforce, Statistics Indonesia data show.
Agus said the initiative was taken to ensure that the workers stayed at home and eventually minimized the spread of COVID-19.
Read also: COVID-19 to slash Indonesia’s growth to 2.1% as millions may slip into poverty: World Bank
“The fight against COVID-19 needs support and cooperation from all the people. We hope the pandemic will recede so we can return to our normal lives and the national economy can improve,” he said.
Official data show that the pneumonia-like disease had infected more 2,738 people in Indonesia as of Tuesday afternoon, with fatalities reaching 221.
