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Govt, preemployment card management at odds over recipients
Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah said on Wednesday that 95,559 laid-off workers were added to the preemployment card program in the 11th and most recent recruitment round this month.
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A smartphone screen shows information about the second registration round for the preemployment card program in Jakarta on April 20, 2020. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
T
he government has criticized the management of the preemployment card program after only 2 million workers who lost their jobs to COVID-19 were admitted in the latest batch of recipients.
Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah said on Wednesday that 95,559 laid-off workers were added to the preemployment card program in the 11th and most recent recruitment round this month.
The government has maintained that it is prioritizing laid-off workers so that they can benefit from the program’s upskilling and social assistance benefits.
“We really deplore the project management officer’s decision,” Ida said in a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission IX on demographic affairs, health and manpower. “Of the 2.1 million pandemic-hit workers President [Joko “Jokowi” Widodo] had asked to be given the red carpet, only a small fraction was admitted.”
Read also: Preemployment card program sees limited reach in eastern Indonesia
The government has only added around 500,000 workers to the program’s whitelist. The House of Representatives added an additional 25,000 names and the country’s biggest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, respectively added 20,700 and 9,000 names to the list.
The impact of COVID-19 on the economy has led Indonesia to its first recession in two decades, as well as massive job losses nationwide.
