As a follow-up to the collaboration to strengthen the application of occupational safety and health (OSH) in the hotel and restaurant industry, the ILO and the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) held a business seminar on July 25 in Medan, North Sumatra with the theme: “Resilient and Adaptive Business with OSH”. This seminar was part of a series of activities carried out by the ILO and PHRI in encouraging the return of tourist demand and interest after two years of being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar seminars have been held in several other cities in Indonesia such as in Makassar, Bandung, Semarang, Jogjakarta and through online.

This seminar also seeked to ensure business continuity and protection of guests, workers and third-party vendors through the implementation of a stronger OSH management system in the city of Medan – as one of the fourth largest cities in Indonesia which is also a city of business and trade.

The seminar which was attended by the Secretary General of the PHRI, Maulana Yusran and the Chairman of the BPD PHRI of North Sumatra, Denny S. Wardhana, expected to provide added value and accelerate economic growth in the city.

“The collaboration between PHRI and the ILO which has been going on since January 2022 is important because business players in the hotel and restaurant industry can now carry out OSH risk assessments in the workplace, take preventive actions and improve competence on OSH issues as well as build dialogue so that OSH programs and systems become more focused," said Maulana.

The seminar also invited an OSH doctor to enrich the knowledge of the participants regarding the basics of OSH and risk assessment which is one of the important elements in building an appropriate and comprehensive OSH system in the workplace. The ILO through its Enhancing COVID-19 Prevention at and through the Workplaces project provides free risk assessment services for COVID-19 transmission in the workplace to companies in Indonesia for the sake of business continuity and resilience in times of pandemics and future public health crises.

Yanis Saputra, ILO COVID-19 Prevention Project Staff, emphasized that OSH is part of the ILO's fundamental principles and rights at work, in which all ILO member States, including Indonesia, are committed to respecting and promoting the fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment.

"Through this service, all information from the assessment results can be used as a basis and recommendation to management to strengthen the OSH culture in the workplace through buttress the preparation and implementation of better standard operating procedures (SoP), strengthening the company's OSH Committee, enhancing activities to increase the understanding of employees, workers and strengthen the bipartite role for every policy advocacy related to OSH,” Yanis added.

The event was attended by more than 70 hotel and restaurant representatives in North Sumatra, whom registered their companies in the ILO's COVID-19 risk assessment service at work through www.ilocovidproject.id