Jakarta (ANTARA) - Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah accentuated that commemoration of the 2023 National Work Safety and Health (K3) Month would focus on tackling tuberculosis (TB) in the workplace on account of the large number of cases.

During the National K3 Month commemoration ceremony in Sukabumi, West Java, on Thursday, the minister explained that the issue of handling TB in the workplace required serious attention from all labor stakeholders, considering that Indonesia ranks second as a country with the largest number of TB cases in the world, according to data from the WHO Global TB Report in 2021.

"In the National K3 Commemoration Month, it is important for us to highlight the health problem in the workforce, namely the high number of TB cases in the workplace," Fauziyah stated.

As a realization of the government's commitment to improving the K3 program, especially to achieve the TB elimination target by 2030, the Ministry of Manpower issued Manpower Minister Regulation Number 13 of 2022 concerning Tuberculosis Control in the Workplace.

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The regulation is a follow-up to the amendment to the Republic of Indonesia Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No.67 of 2021 concerning TB Control.

"We hoped that the management or work providers would actively participate in handling TB in the workplace, starting from the employees' enrollment, hygienic sanitation in the workplace, and working together to repair workers' housing," she stated.

In particular, Fauziyah also encourages more companies to implement the Occupational Safety and Health Management System (SMK3) consistently as mandated by laws and regulations, considering the number of work accidents and work-related illnesses had increased in the last three years.

Based on data from the Workers Social Security Program (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan) in 2020, the number of work accidents reached 221,740 cases and climbed to 234,370 cases in 2021 and reached 265,334 cases in 2022.

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Translator: Prisca Triferna V, Resinta S
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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