JAKARTA - Still in the momentum of commemorating International Labor Day (May Day), PTPN IV PalmCo again underlines the urgency of implementing Occupational Safety and Health (K3) in the plantation and agro-industry sectors.
Managing a concession area of more than 600 thousand hectares and operating dozens of palm oil mills spread across various regions of Indonesia, the company places mitigation of occupational accident risks as part of daily standard operating procedures that cannot be negotiated.
Until the first quarter of 2026, this PTPN III (Persero) sub-holding entity recorded more than 52 million safe working hours. This figure is the accumulation of the implementation of a standardized K3 management system across all operational regions.
The President Director of PTPN IV PalmCo, Jatmiko K. Santosa, stated that the management of K3 in high-risk and labor-intensive industries cannot only rely on fulfilling administrative requirements.
"For us in management, May Day is not just an annual reminder, but a momentum to evaluate how far we have protected our fellow workers in the field. K3 is the basic right of every worker. In this plantation industry, compliance with safety procedures is an absolute obligation and not just an additional option," said Jatmiko in a written statement, Saturday, May 9.
Jatmiko explained that the achievement of tens of millions of safe working hours was an indicator of the system in operation. However, he emphasized that the company did not apply tolerance to potential accidents (zero accident target).
"The challenges in the field are very dynamic because we manage tens of thousands of workers in 12 provinces with varying levels of job risk, ranging from harvesting processes, heavy equipment transportation, to machine operations in factories. The main principle has never changed: workers leave in good health, then they must return to their families in a safe condition," he said.
Closing his statement, Jatmiko emphasized that the productivity and the company's downstream agenda must go hand in hand with the safety of the work ecosystem.
"Various strategic targets of the company, including maintaining national food and energy security through the downstreaming of commodities, can only be optimally achieved if our work ecosystem is safe. The K3 culture is an essential foundation for all company operations," said Jatmiko.
Efforts to mitigate risks have consistently focused on increasing the capacity and awareness of Human Resources (HR) as the spearhead of operations in the field.
Director of Strategy & Sustainability of PTPN IV PalmCo, Ugun Untaryo, explained that the company gradually drives the proportion of employees who have General and specific K3 Expert (AK3) certification to build a safety culture from the ground level.
"The best supervision system will not be effective without the self-awareness of its employees. Therefore, we facilitate and encourage employees at various operational levels to obtain AK3 certification. We project these certificate holders to be driving forces or change agents of a safe culture in each unit of the garden and factory," said Ugun.
Strategically, the fulfillment of this K3 aspect is a manifestation of responsibility in the Social Aspect in the company's commitment to the implementation of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.
As a concrete step, PTPN IV PalmCo has also been noted to carry out a number of collaborative interventions across agencies, one of which is through synergy with PT PLN (Persero) to provide specific education related to the safety of palm oil harvesting in areas that intersect with medium voltage electricity networks.
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