Public debate has urged that the Preemployment Card Program be postponed and its funding be reallocated as social assistance during the Covid-19 epidemic.
By
SHARON PATRICIA
·5 minutes read
Public debate has urged that the Preemployment Card Program be postponed and its funding be reallocated as social assistance during the Covid-19 epidemic. It also recommends that the government implement a job-keeper scheme once the epidemic has subsided.
The Preemployment Card program has become a hot topic in relation to the Covid-19 outbreak over the past month. Prospective participants and participants of the employment and skills training program have left comments on the Manpower Ministry’s social media account, starting from registration to the selection process and to the disbursement of the program’s incentives.
The Kompas investigation of the Instagram account of the Manpower Ministry on Saturday (5/2/2020) found that people were complaining about the problems they have been facing. These problems included transparency issues regarding the passing grades of the Preemployment Card’s training component.
According to the government, the decision of whether a participant has failed or passed is made randomly.
One user, Chelta Limbong, commented: "What assessment component has made me fail [the training exam]? Let me know, so I know how to improve in the future." Such comments are reasonable, because the parameters used to determine the passing grade of the training program are unclear. According to the government, the decision of whether a participant has failed or passed is made randomly.
Inez Valencia, 24, who was in the first batch of Preemployment Card participants, asked why she had still not received the program allowance, even though she had completed the training on 23 April 2020. As a matter of fact, the government promises to disburse the Rp 600,000 allowance within five days after a participant has successfully completed the training program.
"I don\'t know why the system still reads \'it has not been processed\', even though I completed four training courses last week. It would be great if the allowance had been disbursed, it as I would have extra money for food," said Inez, a private employee who has been laid off.
Another complaint was posted by Nadya Amalia, 23, an employee in the digital marketing sector who has been forced to take unpaid leave since the beginning of April. After she succeeded in being selected for the second batch of the Preemployment Card, she asked about job security.
"I am definitely staying at home, but I don\'t know whether I will receive a call, I don\'t know whether I will be called back [to work] or not. That\'s why, what is actually most needed are job opportunities or, at the very least, direct cash assistance that can be used immediately," read Nadya’s post.
30 batches
According to Kompas’ records, the Preemployment Card registration will be open until the fourth week of November 2020 for a total of 30 batches of participants. A total of 8.6 million people had registered by Tuesday night (28/4/2020).
However, the program has a per batch quota of participants. For example, the first batch has a quota of 168,111 participants and the second batch has a quota of 288,154 participants.
Economics head Yose Rizal Damuri at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that to meet its target of 5.6 million participants, the program would need to run at least 28 weeks – about 7 months – if the quota was restricted to 200,000 participants per week.
"Perhaps the epidemic [Covid-19] will end (even before laid-off employees receive the Preemployment Card benefits). So it would be better if the skills training is postponed and the training fund is reallocated as social assistance that do not have any prerequisites," said Yose.
Yose said the Preemployment Card was a good skills improvement program, but not during a pandemic. If it continued to run, the Preemployment Card program would not produce maximum results.
Job keeper scheme
Data from the Manpower Ministry dated 20 April 2020 shows that the Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia has affected 2.1 million workers from 160,000 companies, both formal and informal. The breakdown shows that 1.3 million formal workers have been temporarily laid off, while more than 241,000 workers have been laid off.
Workers from the informal sector are also affected, with more than 500,000 workers from 31,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) affected by the economic impacts of the pandemic.
In a statement posted on the Manpower Ministry’s official website, Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah reiterated that companies must view layoffs as a final resort. She also appealed to employers to recall or rehire employees and contract workers who had been temporarily or permanently laid off once the Covid-19 epidemic was over.
"Don\'t forget, once the business is running again and making a profit, the laid-off workers must be prioritized for rehiring, because they already know each other [and have the necessary skills]. There is no need to train them. They are like part of the family," the minister said.
Yose also said that the government could come up with a job-keeper scheme or provide a stimulus to affected companies.
Yose also said that the government could come up with a job-keeper scheme or provide a stimulus to affected companies. For example, companies could be incentivized on the condition that they must rehire employees who had been suspended or laid off.
"Through this method, companies can help restart production faster. Absorbing laid-off workers will be easier," said Yose.
For example, Australia has implemented its JobKeeper scheme. Quoting an article published on 26 April 2020 on business.gov.au titled "JobKeeper Payment for Employers and Employees" (https://business.gov.au/Risk-management/Emergency- management/Coronavirus-information-and-support-for- business/JobKeeper-Payment-for-employers-and-employees), the scheme offers a subsidy to businesses affected by Covid-19 so they can continue paying their employees’ salaries.
The Australian government will issue a two-week wage subsidy of A$1,500 (Rp 14 million) for each employee, with the subsidy to be disbursed starting from the first week of May to 27 Sept. 2020.
Meanwhile, an article in The Guardian titled "Jobkeeper payment: check your eligibility. Here\'s everything you need to know to register" (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/30/jobkeeper- payment-eligibility-ato-tax-for-sole-traders-start-date-faq-application- jobseeker-payments) quoted the Australian government as saying that it was targeting a maximum 6 million recipients of the wage subsidy. The wage subsidy was guaranteed for even casual (contract) workers.