Building greater trust among relevant stakeholders, optimizing benefits adequacy, re-profiling members of social security for workers as well as synchronizing existing regulations were the four recommendations from the joint evaluation seminar conducted by the ILO and the Ministry of Manpower in Jakarta on 7 September.

The joint evaluation was part of an effort to provide concrete inputs to the Government of Indonesia who is now in the process of examining the implementation of employment-related social security, in a context of increased digitalization.

Wahyu Widodo, Director of Social Security, Ministry of Manpower said that the government is committed to prioritize the expansion of the membership coverage. “The enhancement of the digital technology has given birth to and expanded new professions which need to be protected by the social security schemes,” he said, emphasizing the importance of transparency in this digitalization era.

Zainudin, Head of Membership Division of the Social Security Administering Body on Employment (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan) stated that BPJS Ketenagakerjaan has applied digital communication systemin order to enhance the quality of services and continue improving its performance.

“Both workers and employers have now better access to information related to employment social security. They can also easily pose questions or queries regarding memberships, fees, claims, benefits and so forth. Any violations by companies could also now be massively reported,” he added.

However, Subiyanto Pudin, Member of National Social Security Board representing workers, reminded that many workers still complain about the difficulties that they are experiencing to get their claims settled. As a result, the claim ratio for work accident benefits and death benefits was only around 30 per cent. He also found that some companies are still reluctant to report work accidents as they strive to maintain their records for zero accidents.

In addition, Subiyanto emphasized the urgent need for synchronizing and harmonizing existing regulations related to employment social security. “To date, we have 15 overlapping regulations related to employment social security. Therefore, we need to further examine these regulations as an effort to ensure the effective implementation of employment social security in this country,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Deputy General Secretary of the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo), Iftida Yasar, reminded the participants of the forum about the growing informal employment in the country. “Most of the workers in informal employment, including in the growing digital business such as online transportation services, are not yet covered by the employment social security as they cannot afford the fees.” she said.

She also highlighted the urgent need to build greater trust among relevant stakeholders. “We need to build trust among ourselves. We cannot implement good and effective employment social security system without trust. With trust we can continue working together for better application, outreach and benefits,” she concluded.

In addition to inputs from national resource persons, the participant to the joint evaluation forum discussed about international standards and best practices, particularly from Asian countries. Anne Drouin, ILO’s Director of Global Employment Injury Programme, shared her views on international experiences and lessons learnt on the implementation of social security. She appreciated efforts that have been taken by the Government of Indonesia to strengthen and improve the national social security system; yet, she reminded the country to optimize benefits given particularly for work accident benefit.

The joint evaluation was conducted by the ILO/Japan Project on Extending Social Security in ASEAN (ESSA) in Indonesia. The Project is aimed to generate better knowledge and expertise on extension of social security, and stimulate South-South cooperation across ASEAN Member States. The Project provides direct support to Indonesia and Viet Nam, and in a certain extend to Myanmar, for increasing social security coverage. (*)