Indonesia is now in the process of developing and formulating its National Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Programme 2019-2024. This National OSH Programme is part of the commitment from key labour actors—Ministry of Manpower, workers’ and employers’ organizations together with other key stakeholders—to continue implementing and improving the OSH safety and prevention culture in the country.

The Ministry of Manpower, facilitated by the ILO, organized a one-day workshop on the development of the National OSH Programme on 23 January in Jakarta. The main goals of the workshop were to strengthen national dialogue on OSH, significantly contribute to achievement of OSH programme objectives as well to clarify roles and responsibilities among key stakeholders for achieving the objectives of the National OSH Programme.

Meanwhile, Michiko Miyamoto highlighted the commitment of the ILO to continuously support Indonesia in improving its OSH preventive culture and mechanism. “The National OSH Programme is going to advance the OSH agenda of Indonesia. The ILO has its OSH tools available and by combining it with the national tools it would make the priority actions developed today beneficial for all,” she declared.

Identifying priorities and strategies

To provide guidelines on the development of OSH programme at the country level, Francisco Santos O’Connor, Senior Specialist in OSH, ILO Decent Work Team in Bangkok, presented the National Level ILO System approach consisting of national OSH policy, national OSH profile and national programmes as well as the main elements that should be taken into account in the national OSH programme.

“The National OSH System should not only pay attention to occupational safety but also to focus on occupational diseases, particularly for certain sectors such as mining sector. In addition, the National OSH System take into account the improvement of OSH council at the enterprise level as well as good representation of workers on OSH related issues,” Francisco explained.

Explaining the national OSH conditions, Dr. Sudi Astono, MS, Head of Monitoring Unit for Construction, Electricity and Fire Prevention of the Ministry of Manpower, highlighted key national programmes and policies that should be taken into considerations in identifying OSH programme priorities and strategies.

To further identify key priorities and strategies, the 85 attending participants were divided into five working groups: 1. Vision, mission and policies; 2. Institutional strengthening; 3. Human resources development on OSH; OSH awareness raising and promotion; and 5. OSH data reporting and management system. Each group was assigned to identify programme initiatives, types of activities and resources.

The main vision and mission identified in the workshop was the integration of OSH culture into all developmental programmes and activities by 2024. Some identified programmes, among others, included the establishment of National OSH Body, OSH data interconnection with BPJS Ketenagakerjaan dan Kesehatan, the development of reporting application and the establishment of OSH communications forum as a knowledge and experience sharing platform.

Follow-ups to finalize the national OSH programme

Abdul Hakim, Project Coordinator for Safe Youth at Work, appraised the enthusiasm shown by the participants to jointly identify the priorities and strategies based on the five assigned topics. “Each group has a mixed participants representing the governments, workers, employers, academia, youth and so forth. Each of them has his or her OSH knowledge, expertise and experience that they could share and enrich the dialogue process,” Abdul exclaimed.

As an immediate follow-up to the workshop, the identified strategies were compiled for the draft formulation process. “Prior to the finalization, it is planned to have a validation workshop in mid of April where the key stakeholders can review and re-examine the draft strategy. After the validation process, the National OSH Programme of Indonesia is going to be launched by end of April, in conjunction with the commemoration of the World Day for Health and Safety at Work,” Abdul added.

Disclaimer

Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL-26690-14-75-K-11.

This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government. One hundred percentage of the total costs of the project or program is financed with Federal funds, for a total of 11,443,156 dollars.