Minister of Home Affairs Instructs Regional Heads in Greater Jakarta to Apply 50 Percent WFH

JAKARTA - The Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian instructed the Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta, Heru Budi Hartono, the Governor of West Java, Ridwan Kamil, and the Acting Governor of Banten Al Muktabar, as well as regents and mayors throughout Greater Jakarta to implement work from home (WFH) part.

This instruction is contained in the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs or Inmendagri Number 2 of 2023 concerning Control of Air Pollution in the Jabodetabek area.

In the Minister of Home Affairs, regional heads throughout Jabodetabek implement hybrid working or 50 percent WFH and 50 percent WFO for ASN within regional apparatus, SOE employees, and Regional-owned Enterprises (BUMD).

"With the exception of those who provide direct public services/essential services," said the Director General of Regional Administration Development at the Ministry of Home Affairs Safrizal ZA as quoted from ANTARA, Wednesday, August 23.

In addition, local governments in the Greater Jakarta area were instructed to encourage private employees and the business world to carry out WFH and WFO according to the policies of the relevant agencies or business actors.

Partial WFH policies are expected to reduce mobility which causes air pollution. This is because most people use vehicles, either cars or motorbikes, for activities such as going to the office.

Not only implementing hybrid working, the Ministry of Home Affairs also instructed regional heads throughout Jabodetabek to implement restrictions on motorized vehicles, improve public transportation services, tighten emission tests to optimize the use of masks, control environmental emissions and implement green solutions, as well as control industrial waste management.

Efforts to limit motorized vehicles can be carried out by optimizing the use of mass or public transportation modes, the use of non-emission vehicles or electric vehicles. This is because based on data, the transportation and industrial sectors are factors that cause air pollution in Jabodetabek.

"Regional heads were instructed to improve public transportation services by ensuring the capacity of the number of public vehicles, adding routes and transport points, overcoming disturbances in the busway lane and providing incentives or price discounts so that people are encouraged to switch from private vehicles to public transportation," he said.

In the Minister of Home Affairs, regional heads throughout Jabodetabek were also instructed to tighten the vehicle emission test program and increase supervision as well as socialize the provision of facilities for users of vehicles that do not emit emissions or electric vehicles. There are also incentives for electric vehicles such as exemption from odd-even,

Safrizal said the Inmendagri followed up on President Jokowi's directives in a limited meeting to improve air quality in the Jabodetabek area on Monday 14 August.

This Minister of Home Affairs' Instruction (Inmendagri) will come into force on August 22, 2023 until a later date based on the results of an evaluation of the established policies.

"The directives in the Minister of Home Affairs' instructions need to be implemented with a concrete action strategy while maintaining the principle of balance, namely the need between improving air quality and efforts to maintain the people's economy which is getting better after the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.