PRESS RELEASE

Civil Society Coalition for Access to Health Justice "Pandemic Heading to Endemic, Health Care Incentives Not Completed"

January 15from 2023 – Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, health workers still have to continue to struggle to treat Covid-19 patients. Not infrequently some of them fall ill, and have to sacrifice their lives. Therefore, the government through the Decree of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia No.HK. 01. 07/ Menkes/770/2022 promised to provide incentive rights to all health workers who handle Covid-19.

Even though Covid-19 cases are currently starting to decline, there are still many problems that health workers have to face. One of them is incentives that have been cut because the government claims that it does not have a budget, so the incentives have not been distributed. During 2022, we found at least 241 citizen reports regarding incentives for health workers who handle Covid-19. Most recently, we received a report regarding incentives for health workers in the city of Semarang, Central Java, which resulted in the unilateral termination of work contracts because they were deemed to have brought the hospital institution into disrepute.

Struggling to obtain rights resulted in termination of the contractual relationship

In July 2022, we received a report from one of the health workers at a hospital in Semarang City, Central Java where his incentives as a health worker who treated Covid-19 patients in February and March 2022 had not been paid. The report was then forwarded to the Semarang City Government and the Ministry of Health. However, the results were nil. Instead, the health worker was summoned and threatened with sanctions by the hospital's board of directors.

Previously, LaporCovid-19 together with LBH Semarang had sent a letter of clarification to explain again the issue of resolving health worker incentives to minimize the risk of termination of the health worker's employee status. Several months later, precisely on January 2 2023, the health worker was still dismissed through a Decree on Termination of Employment Contract on the grounds that he did not pass the contract extension exam.

Termination of employment contracts after health workers fought for their incentive rights proves that the Semarang City Government and its staff have not fully implemented public service governance that is good, responsive, open, accountable, encouraging, facilitating and protecting community participation. The Semarang City Government is actually focusing on stopping the critical voices of citizens regarding his rights. In fact, good public services are one of the conditions for fulfilling human rights, especially regarding access to health services during the pandemic.

Citizens' reports should not be an obstacle to the agency's performance, criticism is not constructive, or is considered to defame the agency. On the other hand, citizen reports are actually useful for controlling the bureaucracy of an agency and the policies it sets. In this case, health workers who have contributed to handling Covid-19 do not receive adequate protection, do not receive their incentive rights, and risk losing their jobs if they demand their rights.

Therefore, we, the Civil Society Coalition for Access to Health Justice, urge the government to immediately:

1. Distribute and resolve incentive problems for health workers handling Covid-19 in Semarang City;
2. Cancel the Decree to Terminate Employment Contracts for health workers who are struggling to obtain their incentive rights;
3. Stop all forms of intimidation and threats to citizens who speak out for improvements to public services during the pandemic;
4. Providing good, responsive, open, accountable public services, encouraging, facilitating and protecting citizen participation so that citizens do not feel afraid of the consequences of their reports.

Civil Society Coalition for Access to Health Justice

Contact Person:

Siswo – Report Covid-19
+6281235623778

This press release can be downloaded via the following link