Training on OSH Improvement for Community Owned Plantation in Serdang Bedagai, North Sumatera

Background

Following Indonesia’s ratification of the ILO Convention 182 which was enacted by Act no 1/2000, a National Action Committee (NAC) on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour was established. The Committee subsequently prepared a National Plan of Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (NPAE-EWFCL). The Plan identifies as its objective the need ‘to prevent and eliminate the WFCL’ and it calls for a National Action Programme to be developed to achieve the objectives of the Plan in a three-phase programme over twenty years starting 2002 to 2022. The Plan calls for actions by a wide range of governmental and other actors to contribute to the success of the NPAE-WFCL.

An ILO supported survey on child labour which was implemented by Statistics Indonesia, indicated that there were around 1.7 million child labourers aged 5 to 17 years old in Indonesia in 2009. Around 750,000 out of 1.7 million children are those in the age range of 15 to 17 years old. While minimum age for working in Indonesia is 15-year-olds, these children fall under the category of child labour because they are working in hazardous works. Due to the social economic factors, there are still quite a lot of children aged 15- to 17-year-old in the work force and many are working in hazardous conditions.

One of the approaches in eliminating hazardous work for children under 18 years old but already reaching the minimum age for working is by improving working conditions or application of occupational safety and health (OSH) principles. Application of OSH standards becomes a practical way to reduce child labour. Application of OSH standards also create opportunities for young workers of 15–17-year-olds to work legally, consistent with the ILO Convention 182, which demands that States treat this as an urgent matter.

ILO-IPEC is currently implementing a 2nd phase Project of Support to the Indonesia Time Bound Programme for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor and one of the sectors targeted by the project is child labour in plantation, especially in palm oil plantation, rubber and tobacco plantation. Baseline surveys conducted in year 2008, revealed that many children under 18-year-olds were involved in these plantation work. While those under legal minimum age for working, should be assisted to exit the works, that above minimum age should be protected from hazardous works.

The presence of children working under hazardous conditions in the commercial plantation sector led the ILO to design a programme targeting elimination of child labour in this sector. Findings of the ILO’s OSH assessment in plantation in year 2009 shows that the working conditions of the workplaces in this sector are poor. A number of direct and indirect risks and hazards have been identified, including falling from high place; insect bites; and chemical substances. There are 113 accident-related work that have been experienced by 42 children below 18 years old who work in this sector. It means, a child is exposed to hazards or accident-related work more than one time. The accidents that occur clearly show that working in plantation sector is hazardous.

Considering the fact that there are thousands of children aged 15 to 17 presently working in the sector, most of who work in workplaces with critical OSH related problems, a comprehensive approach is needed to deal with the problem. National stakeholders committed to support efforts to improve the working condition.

The ILO-IPEC Jakarta has currently developed a draft guidance to improve OSH in the plantation sector. The guidance will be reviewed by OSH experts in Indonesia in the end of January 2011. Expert comments will be included to finalize the guidance. When it is finalized, the ILO-IPEC Jakarta is going to use it as a basis for training material on OSH Training in local level between February and March 2011 in North Sumatra, Lampung and East Java.

Objectives

The objectives of the training workshop are to:

• Improve key stakeholders' knowledge on OSH issues in the plantation; and
• Encourage establishment of community team to monitor implementation of OSH improvement.

Training workshop

The training workshop is a two-day training workshop on OSH improvement measures in the commercial plantation sector, especially rubber and palm oil plantation.

The training workshop will utilize the guidance on OSH improvement developed by the ILO which covers five steps of production processes in plantation sector: preparing seedlings; preparing the land; planting; tending; and harvesting. The guidance recognizes hazards: psychosocial; physical and physical environment; chemical; biological and ergonomic hazards. It also provides some practical steps to improve OSH in plantation sector, such as how to control the hazards; and monitor progress of the improvement.

The training workshop is meant also to build a commitment from stakeholders or participants to improve the OSH condition in plantation sector and at the same time not to employ or involve children in hazardous works. In the end of training workshop, participants will be expected to try out the trained/suggested steps in their own workplaces.