The agency has continued to intensively communicate with related ministries to finalize the regulation, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan's membership director Zainudin told mediapersons here on Friday.
Earlier, a number of regional governments made an intervention to drive vulnerable workers' membership, he informed.
This was carried out in accordance with Presidential Instruction No. 2 of 2021 on optimizing workers' social security program implementation.
According to Zainudin, due to this intervention, at least 1.2 million vulnerable workers have entered the protection of the agency.
"Due to the instruction, we try to persuade regional governments with good fiscal. We try to urge them to protect construction workers, workers with disabilities, mosque caretakers, and church caretakers," he noted.
However, this figure is still quite low from the target of protecting 20 million vulnerable workers described within the 2020–2024 Mid-Term National Development Program (RPJMN).
To this end, state intervention is necessary in the form of a legal umbrella regulation that allows each regional government to perform direct intervention to drive vulnerable workers' membership.
Vulnerable workers do not actually refuse to be members, but they are not able to pay the dues, he highlighted.
The agency is seeking to expedite membership to protect vulnerable workers so that if there are risks, in addition to compensation, their children can also receive scholarships, he explained.
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo has lauded the agency's achievement in increasing informal workers' membership, he said.
The agency increased informal worker membership to 62 percent as of September 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year.
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Translator: Gilang Galiartha, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Suharto
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