Apjati to Set Aside US$120 Mln for Worker Protection Scheme Jakarta - The Indonesian Manpower Suppliers Association (Apjati) will earmark US$120 million per annum as a protection and training program fund for Indonesian workers, Apjati chairman Ayub Basalamah said here on Sunday. Ayub said that the funds would be made available following the government policy to reopen the placement of Indonesian workers in the Middle East. He said that the funds were to be collected from recruiting fees from employers. "The funding scheme will be agreed in a multilateral meeting of the manpower suppliers association in Jakarta next March. "Apjati and its partners have agreed in the Middle East the establishment of the funding scheme --including the mechanism of fund collection-- for protection and training programs," Ayub said. He said that workers protection needed not only a good system but also a big fund so that Apjati could act speedily when a problem was arising. The speed action could be made with flexible and speedy access to the funds given the fact that a worker problem often needed a speedy and informal settlement. In the Middle East, employers pay US$1,200 in recruiting fees for Saudi Arabia and US$1,500 - US$1,700 in the United Arab Emirates and other countries. "We will negotiate so that employers in Saudi Arabia will pay an equal amount to that paid in the United Arab Emirates," the Apjadi chairman said. He said that the Apjati would set aside US$100 for workers protection funds. "If placement of workers in the Middle East is reopened, there would be about 40,000 Indonesian workers to be placed there, which means that some US$4 million of recruitment fees could be collected for protection scheme," he said. He said that if the amount was multiplied with 12, the funds to be collected would reach US$456 billion per month. The funds would also be used to fund the opening of the Apjati branch offices overseas and the recruitment of arbitration officials for problematic workers. "This is to follow the message as stated in the law," he added. Apjati will in stages open 13 branches in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Syria, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In the meantime, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Muhaimin Iskandar said last month that the government had planned to stop sending Indonesian housemaids abroad by 2017. "However, the moratorium will be implemented in stages, because the demand for housemaid services abroad is still strong," he said. "We have stopped sending housemaids to Saudi Arabia. We will now send only a limited number of maids to Malaysia, although we will stop it altogether by 2017," Iskandar stated. He said that the government had prepared an alternative solution. These housemaids will now be used to meet the rising domestic demand for such services. Iskandar said countries wishing to employ Indonesian housemaids must comply with the terms and conditions set by the government. "The housemaids shall be treated as formal workers, who will have regular working hours," he added. (*)


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