A series of occupational safety and health (OSH) talkshows were conducted by the ILO’s Enhancing COVID-19 Prevention at and through Workplaces, a 1.5-year project funded by the Government of Japan, from 20-22 September in Jakarta. These series of activities aimed to demonstrate best practices, lessons learnt and ways forward to continue building OSH resiliency of companies, organizations as well as individuals, particularly youth, to be more resourceful and adaptive in facing future crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

These activities also marked the closing of the project that has provided OSH technical assistance and capacity development to over 1,500 workplaces and 22,000 workers in Indonesia. Over 200 people representing relevant ministries, employers’ and workers’ organizations, OSH experts and academia, youth as well as media participated in this series of activities.

The first talkshow titled “Building the OSH Preventative Culture” presented key speakers of Yuli Adiratna, Director of Labour Inspection and Norms of the Ministry of Manpower and Ngadi Purnomo, HSE Head Division of PT WIKA Realty. During the interactive discussion, they discussed and shared how to create leaders within teams at enterprise or organization level and examine the future of the OSH profession and its leaders. The session also discussed how to create a successful safety culture and the challenges that come with large organizations.

“We always look after and improve our OSH management system to maintain zero accidents in all work practices. We believe that good safety will lead to good business as well,” said Ngadi. Some good practices shared included regular safety morning talks and toolbox meetings to raise workers’ awareness and to incorporate OSH as company’s work culture.

“In order for the implementation of OSH to run well in all company’s activity programmes, it is necessary to measure the implementation using a scorecard containing the system implementation level,” he added.

The second talkshow titled “Taking Advantage of the Power of Social Sustainability”, discussing about approaches to harness the power of social sustainability for businesses. To be more responsible, resilient and sustainable, companies should focus on human-centred approach by increasing investment in people’s capabilities, institutions of work and decent as well as sustainable work.

Five key speakers shared their experiences and knowledge for the benefit of both businesses and workers: dr. Rima Melati, OSH Committee of the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo), Maulana Yusran, Secretary General of Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI), Sulistri, Secretary General of the Trade Union Federation for Food, Beverage, Tourism, Restaurant and Hotel (FSB KAMIPARHO), Poppy Ismalina, Associate Professor of Economics from Gadjah Mada University and Abdul Hakim, ILO’s Project Manager for COVID-19 Prevention at Workplaces.

The third talkshow titled “Journalists and Mental Health” encouraged all people, particularly young people and workers, to not only focus on physical safety and health, but also pay attention to their mental health. Jackie Viemilawati, psychologist from Pulih Foundation, Herik Kurniawan, Chairman of Indonesian Television Journalist Association (IJTI) and Sasmito, Chair of the Alliance of Independent Journalist (AJI) Indonesia encouraged preventive and promotional measures in workers' health management system that was also adaptive to changes in workers' health caused by the effect of COVID-19.

Declared as a pandemic in March 2020, the COVID-19 has negatively impacted more than 29 million Indonesian workers. In addition to various economic problems causing business closures, a reduction of the workforce, the pandemic has disrupted workers’ mental health, including journalists who had to put their personal safety aside for reporting the pandemic. The Ministry of Health noted that in 2020, 18,000 people experienced mental disorders, 23,000 suffered from depression and 1,163 attempted suicides.

“We have provided a platform for journalists to consult a psychologist as we have noticed the mental health issues among them is high. Yet many are still reluctant to consult and speak up and we prefer to keep their feelings to themselves. We also see a gender disparity as male journalists tend to not participate,” said Chair of AJI Indonesia, Sasmito.