The ILO through its Promoting Decent Work on Oil Palm Plantation Project in Indonesia has collaborated with relevant stakeholders to promote sustainable rural livelihoods through decent work conditions and opportunities for palm oil workers. One of the main focuses of the Project is to promote a better working condition through improved application on occupational safety and health (OSH).

Since its inception in 2017, the Project has trained more than 400 workers and farmers in North Sumatra using a participatory training approach called Participatory Action Oriented Training (PAOT). The PAOT training method promotes voluntarily improvement in the workplace utilizing an action checklist. The checklist allows a palm oil worker or farmer to make self-assessment and to prioritize the improvement made in the workplace.

Was Ranjani Sianturi, a Labour Inspector of the Provincial Manpower Office in North Sumatra, appraises the PAOT approach as an alternative method to raise OSH awareness for palm oil workers and farmers. “Due to limited number of labour inspectors, it is impossible to outreach a huge areas of palm oil plantations and mills. This voluntarily improvement approach should also be incorporated into companies’ OSH Management System,” he says.

Meanwhile Edi Sinaga, Secretary of Asosiasi Sawitku Masa Depanku (SAMADE), an organization for palm oil farmers in North Sumatra, emphasizes the commitment of SAMADE to widely disseminate the application of PAOT method to its members. “The PAOT method is the answer to the main concern of SAMADE, which is to improve working condition and OSH implementation of our members as part of the effort to be complied with standards of RSPO or ISPO,” Edi says.

Representing the palm oil workers, Jhoni Andril, a Palm Oil Worker of Gruti Lestari Pratama, a palm oil company, admits that after participating in the PAOT training, he has more understanding about hazards and risks surrounded workers of palm oil. “Palm oil workers constantly interact with hazards and risks at the workplace. By having a better understanding about OSH, we can better protect ourselves at the workplace,” he shares.

Some improvements are shown by some farmers and workers while doing their works at the plantations. Collecting palm oil fruits, for example, can be risky as it can cause back pain and fatigue. The PAOT method shows basic guidance for workers to assess hazards and risks at the workplace. In practice to reduce repetitive bending movement during collecting loose fresh fruit bunches, farmers in SAMADE group use a custom-made tool, a roller hand tool, making the collecting work more easily done without excessive bending position. Other improved practice is the shifting from manual weighing to the usage of lever for palm fruit bunches.  

“By using a lever, instead of manual weighing, it eliminates the risk of shoulder injury and back pain,” explains Irfan Afandi, the ILO’s Palm Oil Project who also acts as the facilitator of the PAOT training, and adds,“the PAOT principles on low cost and simple actions using local resources are a suitable approach for palm oil farmers and smallholders to make improvements.”

To date, the ILO’s Palm Oil Project is in the process of documenting best practices and lessons learnt from improvements made by relevant stakeholders in the palm oil industry, including farmers, workers, smallholders and companies. Irfan shows that to create safer workplace and to promote prevention OSH action, the improvement made can be as simple as making an evacuation signs in the plantation area.

“Thus, we have urged the participating farmers and workers to voluntarily make small improvements in their workplaces by making the best use of local ideas and resources. They are also encouraged to document the improvements in the forms of before and after photos that would be compiled and collected as best practices for dissemination among farmers and workers,” Irfan concludes.