Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Increases in workers' monthly salaries are important as they will help them pay the premiums for the national social security program to be implemented in 2014, social security analysts have said.
Economist Bambang Purwoko of Pancasila University said he was worried that without salary rises a large number of workers would not be able to afford the premiums and, thus, would not enjoy the benefits of the social security program.
With annual economic growth of 6 to 6.5 percent and a relatively high gross domestic product (GDP), Bambang assumed, the government and employers must have financial and fiscal capability to double the monthly wage of civil servants and workers in the formal and informal sectors.
"Workers, civil servants and their families won't be able to enjoy maximum compensation from the occupational accident and death benefit schemes," Bambang said in a seminar here recently.
He added that they would face a heavy burden in their retirement if their contribution (premium) to the occupational social security programs was not raised.
The three-day seminar, which discussed the occupational social security programs, was jointly organized by the ILO office in Jakarta and Paramadina University.
He said the 5 percent premium, which was proposed by the government for the insurance program, was as small as workers paid under the Jamsostek social security program.
"Workers who are disabled and unable to go back to work after workplace accidents, will be unable to support themselves and their families only on the compensation they receive from the programs, while retirees and their families will be able to enjoy their pension benefits in four to seven years after they retire," he said.
Meanwhile, Achmad Subianto, former president director of state pension insurance PT Taspen, said Indonesia should learn from other ASEAN countries such as Malaysia and Singapore which have contributed 30 percent and 40 percent respectively to the provident fund program.
"If the government hasn't have the financial capacity to pay contributions to the programs, it should make a better regulation to have workers and their employers pay a higher contribution to the programs," he said.
Achmad who chairs the National Social Security Society, also said the government should continue promoting the informal sector, which employs around 70 million low-income workers, including the self-employed.
"Workers employed in the informal sector are paid below the minimum-wage level while the self-employed, such as ojek drivers, food vendors and traditional market traders, receive irregular incomes," he said.
Unionists lambasted the government, who they said looked doubtful in implementing the national social security programs, because the country would face a setback if the national program's implementation was suspended again.
The National Committee for National Social Security Program Monitoring (KAJS) secretary-general Indra Munaswar said workers were disappointed with the government who had suspended issuing 10 government and 11 presidential regulations mandated by the 2004 National Social Security Law to implement the five mandatory national programs.