The Government Prioritizes 1.7 Million People Affected By COVID-19 To Participate In The Pre-Employment Card Program

JAKARTA - The government has stated that it will prioritize workers affected by COVID-19, either due to termination of employment (PHK) or being sent home to become participants in the Pre-employment Card program. These workers have been registered by the Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker).

Rudy Salahuddin, Head of the Implementing Team for the Job Creation Committee, said that 1.7 million workers at the Ministry of Manpower and BPJamsostek were on the white list. These affected workers will be prioritized in the next five batches (waves).

Rudy explained, with the existence of a white list, 80 percent of each wave was opened for the priority list of the Ministry of Manpower and the remaining general quota.

"So there are 1.7 million workers. 80 percent per batch, 20 percent general," he said at a press conference on Presidential Decree 76/2020 at Ali Wardhana Building, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Jakarta, Monday, July 13.

On the same occasion, the Director General of Training and Productivity Development, Ministry of Manpower, Bambang Satrio Lelono, said that in improving governance, the government prioritizes the white list collected by the Ministry of Manpower.

As a whole, the Ministry of Manpower and and BPJamsostem have recorded that there are more than 3 million people who are actually included in the white list or priority to become participants of the Pre-Employment Card program.

"The white list is less than 3 million, it contains people who have been laid off. People who have been dismissed and also MSMEs whose businesses are affected by COVID-19. There are 3 million, of which 3 million are less. more than 1.7 million data is very complete, "he said.

Satrio said that his party asked the Manpower Office at the provincial level to BPJamsostek to encourage those who were on the white list to participate in the program.

"Meanwhile, we are still re-verifying the excess. This data is collected by the Ministry of Manpower, from the Provincial Disnaker and also from the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan. This will later become a priority in the search for workers," he said.

Bambang said, in the middle of August, offline or offline training will be opened. As is known, because of the COVID-19, offline training was temporarily eliminated.

"What used to be training due to pandemic conditions is very risky for offline training, so later in August we will open it," he said.

According to Bambang, the government asked the Ministry of Manpower to coordinate this offline model training in implementing the Pre-Work Card program activities.

"We will always coordinate with the local COVID-19 task force. Because we have to make sure that the regular training we are doing really follows the health protocol. Therefore, we will always ask the task force how many can participate in training in one institutions, "he explained.

Furthermore, said Bambang, this offline training will start from areas that have been declared green zones or safe areas for COVID-19.