Action Ordered on Backlog of Migrant Worker Claims

The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration is conducting an evaluation of nine insurance companies after the Legal Aid Foundation accused them of owing over 16,000 migrant workers claims worth more than Rp 350 billion.

I Gusti Made Arke, the director general of labor placement at the ministry, said that his team was conducting an administrative evaluation into the insurance claims and that during a meeting on Wednesday, it had ordered the consortia to pay migrant workers’ insurance claims immediately .

“The administration evaluation is happening now; we need time and resources to do this,” he said. “However, we will also check the [reported] numbers, examine the details.”

He said that all of the insurance companies had said they were committed to working on the claims so as to quickly complete the claims process.

The Association of Indonesian Labor Exporters (Himsataki) on Tuesday released data from the foundation, also known as LBH Kompar, which claimed that during the period from September 2008 to April 2009, 16,621 migrant workers had failed to receive their insurance claims totaling Rp 365 billion ($36 million).

LBH Kompar, appointed by the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Overseas Labor (BNP2TKI) to assist the workers, said that only 232 claims had been paid by the consortia.

According to Arke, LBH Kompar was given the authority by the BNP2TKI to directly take over claims from migrant workers. He said the ministry would soon talk to BNP2TKI about the issue, “because ideally, only the workers and their families can claim compensation.”

During the meeting between the ministry and the insurance companies, it was revealed that some claims had not been compensated because the migrant workers didn’t submit the correct information. The companies also said they were having problems in dealing with LBH Kompar.

“LBH Kompar has applied different amounts of compensation [to the claims],” said Sri Rahayu, head of the insurance claim disbursement office at Asuransi Jasa Indonesia (Jasindo), one of the nine insurance companies.

“If the normal claim is around Rp 10 million for workers whose jobs have been terminated, LBH Kompar could request up to Rp 14 million, but they have also asked for flight tickets and some other things.”

Sri said that the claims reported by LBH Kompar didn’t make any sense.

She said Jasindo was currently processing some 300 migrant workers’ claims submitted by LBH Kompar and that some of the claims had already been paid to the workers.

“Some finally chose to complete the administration process by themselves and they have now received their money. We are now waiting for the ministry’s decision on w hat we should do next.”