IO – The Minister of Labor has issued the Minister of Labor’s Registration No. 15 of 2020 concerning the Sin- gle Employment Data (Satu Data Ketenagakerjaan – “SDK”) policy, the purpose of which is to better manage existing employment data.
There are four objectives for imple- menting SDK: First, providing stan- dardized, accurate, updated, inte- grated, and accountable employment data, easy to access and evaluate. This will control development in the employment sector. Second, sustain- ing the openness and transparency of employment data, thus allowing for good data-based planning and for- mulation of employment sector devel- opment. Third, improving the quality and integrity of employment data in support of Government policies in the employment sector. Fourth, serving as guidelines and referral for both central and regional Government agencies when planning, executing, evaluating, and controlling develop- ment in the employment sector.
The achievement of these four ob- jectives is hoped to improve the quality and effectiveness of Government and employment programs, as proper targeting will help the Government provide actual support for expanding the welfare of workers and their fam- ilies. SDK is an excellent policy that we should have implemented a long time ago.
On the other hand, we do have Law No. 7 of 1981 concerning Em- ployment Report Obligation for Cor- porations, which is the precursor for creating the SDK database. It is operated through the Decree of the Minister of Labor and Transmigration No. KEP.250/MEN/XII/2008 con-
cerning Classifications and Charac- teristics of Employment Information Data, in conjunction with Minister of Labor and Transmigration Regula- tion No. 1 of 2014; Minister of Labor and Transmigration Regulation No. PER.01/MEN/I/2009 concerning Guidelines on Using Employment Statistical Methods; Minister of La- bor and Transmigration Regulation No. PER.03/MEN/II/2009 concern- ing Guidelines on Presenting Em- ployment Information; and Minister of Labor and Transmigration’s Reg- ulation No. 11 of 2009 concerning Procedures for Monitoring, Evaluat- ing and Managing Employment Data and Information.
With these regulations in place, all Government employment-related pro- grams should refer to SDK. This will enable the Government to plan these programs with proper targeting and generate quality results. For example, with the existence of the SDK, the Wage Subsidy Aid (Bantuan Subsidi Upah – “BSU”) program will refer to it, making sure that the target of 15.7 million workers with wages below IDR 5 million from companies affected by COVID-19 will be properly achieved.
However, that is not the case. As the Ministry of Labor has no prop- er data of its own, it uses data from Employment Social Security Administrator (Badan Penyelenggara Ja- minan Sosial – “BPJS”). This means that some BSU is not distributed on target, and the total amount distrib- uted only covers 12.4 million people out of the total target of 15.7 million newly unemployed citizens. This is because some of the qualified work- ers who are not registered with Em- ployment BPJS will not be getting BSU. The same thing happens with the Pre-Employment Card program. Data of workers who lost their jobs and thus qualify for this program should have been taken from the Ministry of Labor’s SDK if it exists. However, it didn’t happen like that. Therefore, newly unemployed citizens have to undergo such a difficult reg- istration process that they cannot ac- cess Pre-Employment Card properly. With the SDK in place, companies will no longer get away with doing Corporate Partial Registration (Pe- rusahaan Daftar Sebagian – “PDS”) of its employees and wages in Gov- ernment employment programs. All workers will become social security beneficiaries. I have hopes that SDK will help us generate better quali- ty industrial relations and employ- ment-related monitoring, whether in terms of wages, benefits, or training. SDK is the solution for weak employ- ment data monitoring: With all per- tinent data in one place, all reports of working norm violations can be followed up on rapidly and will not cause any “ripple effect” trouble in the workplace. It improves the work-ing ecosystem.
This is why we should support SDK, even though it has arrived quite late. After all, its presence will support all Government employment programs. I have hopes that SDK will serve as proper data reference for all of the Government’s social security programs, whether Employment or Health BPJS. By having these pro grams refer to the SDK, the participa- tion of formal workers in social secu- rity will rise significantly. No worker will be left behind: all will eventually be included in the six Job Loss Se- curity programs (the People’s Health Security (Jaminan Kesehatan Mas- yarakat – “Jamkesmas”); Regional Health Security (Jaminan Kesehatan Daerah – “Jamkesda”); Government Worker Health Insurance (Asuran- si Kesehatan – “ASKES”) for public servants, members of the military, and members of the police; Labor Social Security’s Healthcare Security (Jaminan Pemeliharaan Kesehatan Jaminan Sosial Tenaga Kerja – “JPK Jamsostek”), Corporate Health Se- curity (Jaminan Kesehatan Perusa- haan – “Jamkes Perusahaan”), and corporate-funded private insurance schemes) as they become available.