Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Several worker and employer association groups say they will file a judicial review request of the recently enacted Social Security Providers (BJPS) Law to challenge its constitutionality.
The State Enterprise Workers Union (FSBUMN), the National Workers Union (SPN) and the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) criticized the law for requiring workers and employers to pay insurance premiums for about 70 million workers in the nation's informal economy.
FSBUMN chairman Abdul Latief Algaf and SPN chairman Bambang Wirahyoso said separately on Sunday that more than five million workers from 21 federations opposed the new law and would pool funds at state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek if the Constitutional Court rejected their request.
"We are still preparing a draft of the judicial review," Bambang said, adding the law would pose numerous problems in implementation and that social security was the responsibility of the state as mandated by the Constitution.
Apindo chairman Sofjan Wanandi said employers, who had not been consulted during House deliberations, would not pay more than their current contribution to cover informal workers since this would make the business climate less competitive.
"The social security system will become a disincentive if its implementation is burdensome," Sofjan said, adding the President was leaving social security programs as a time bomb for the next government in 2014.
The new law stipulates the creation of two social security providers and the transformation of the four limited insurance firms – PT Askes, PT Jamsostek, PT Taspen and PT Asabri – into public companies under presidential jurisdiction.
Askes has been designated to handle a universal national healthcare program, while Jamsostek has been tasked with occupational accident, old-age risk, pension and death benefit schemes.
The law also set implementation time frames, requiring that the healthcare program start in January 2011 and that the other programs begin by July 2015.
The government and the House also agreed to disburse Rp 4 trillion in initial capital to the two providers and pledged to move 195 trillion in assets held by the four state insurance companies to the national social security system.
The new law will also come under fire if the Constitutional Court accepts a judicial review of a section of the 2004 National Social Security System Law that requires all participants, except the poor and the jobless, to pay into social security programs.
According to former health minister Siti Fadilah Supari, who requested the judicial review, the law violated the Amended 1945 Constitution, which requires the state to give social security protection to all people for the sake of human dignity.
"Social security protection is a fundamental right of all citizens and therefore participants have no obligation to pay into social security programs," Siti Fadilah said.
Abdul Latief said he would tell the Constitutional Court on Monday that registered Jamsostek participants did not pay contributions but were covered by employers for healthcare, occupational accident and death benefits.
"Because of social security protection, workers' contributions are paid by their employers. Workers have paid only two percent of the total 5.7 percent of their monthly salaries into the old-age risk scheme. And if the 70 million workers in the informal sector are registered with the five mandatory programs, who will pay their contribution, as they have no employers?" he said.
Menwhile, Bambang Purwoko, a professor of social security systems at the University of Indonesia, said infrastructure and personnel limitations made it unlikely that a national healthcare program could be implemented by 2014.