The Indonesian Minister of Manpower, M. Hanif Dhakiri, encouraged young Indonesians to have a good understanding about their labour rights and obligations, including rights and obligations related to occupational safety and health (OSH). “By understanding your rights, you will be more aware of your employer’s obligations and will be more confident to report and speak up about this OSH related issues,” stated the Manpower Minister before more than 100 young Indonesians during the interactive dialogue session in April in Jakarta.

The Minister Hanif also emphasized the rights of young workers to question risks they have to face and/or to inquire additional protection when being assigned to do certain tasks at work. “If you feel like the tasks assigned will put you in danger or in greater risks or harms, you have the right to talk to your employer, requesting a safer working environment,” he added.

The participation of Indonesian youth in promoting OSH is crucial. About half the 130 million population is under the age of 30. Many young workers in Indonesia work in sectors with a high risk of workplace accidents and disease, such as the construction sector.

Responding to the situation above, Minister Hanif added that the government is now in the process of formulating OSH policies that are linked with the technology advancement. “We only have a limited number of labour inspectors for the country. Therefore, we are now in the process of developing an integrated inspection system, including for OSH,” he stated.

The interactive session titled “Questions and Answers with the Indonesian Minister of Manpower” was organized in conjunction with the commemoration of the Wold Day for Safety and Health which falls on 28 April, organized by the ILO. In addition to questions related to occupational safety and health (OSH), the participating youth also focused on issues related to future of work and rights at work in the changing world.

Related to the future of work, he quoted a survey that 65 percent of tomorrow’s workers would have jobs that do not exist today. “For example the online jobs that is known as working without jobs such as Youtuber,” he said.

Thus, the best protection needed by Indonesian youth, according to the Indonesian Minister of Manpower was the skills and employability protections. “The advancement of technology has brought new types of employments and professions. Therefore, it is important for young people to have the right skills, competency and expertise so that they can adjust with today’s fast changing world,” he explained.

Other ways to provide better protection for youth were through apprenticeship and internship programmes. Through these programmes, young Indonesians could further learn about their labour rights and have a better understanding about the proper working relations at the workplaces.

The session concluded with the suggestions from the Manpower Minister for the participating youth. He inspired them to build and strengthen their five Cs: Character, competency, collaboration (networking), contribution (productivity) and creativity. “Please continue to build and strengthen these five Cs as the human capital for you in the future,” he said.