JAKARTA. In order to boost the number of participants, the Employment Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan) adopts some strategies. This time, the Employment BPJS involves retail and hotel companies to provide discounts on shopping.

Recently, Employment BPJS involved CT Corp to implement this scheme. The scheme offers not only provides benefits of the four programs, but also the direct benefits.

President Director of Employment BPJS Agus Susanto said that the additional benefits will be an incentive for the participants of Employment BPJS. "Employment BPJS give discounts on shopping in the network of CT Corp," he said on Monday (5/12) night.

Agus added that since the fourth quarter of 2016, Employment BPJS has worked with a various merchants to provide direct benefits, which can be used by the participants of Employment BPJS in a daily basis.

According to Agus, this partnership scheme has involved more than 400 merchants. In addition to CT Corp, other merchants include Garuda Indonesia (in terms of purchasing tickets for a specific purpose), Hotel Saraswati, Inul Vista in certain areas, Pringsewu Restaurant, Hotel Atria Magelang, Pelita Hati school, and Prodia clinic and laboratory in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara Province.

Furthermore, the Employment BPJS also conducts an educational program titled SuperWeekend. This is a media to educate public on the importance of social security. At the same time, this is a media to recruit new participants and to socialize the benefits of BPJS program throughout Indonesia.

As information, as of the end of October 2016, total membership of Employment BPJS reached 21,073,391 participants of active employees.

Pure business Head of External Communications at Employment BPJS Irvansyah Utoh Banja said that the provision of discount on shopping has a purely business objective. Therefore, there is no inclusion of Employment BPJS funds in these activities.

Understandably, the huge number of Employment BPJS participants is the potential market for the retail companies. “The discounts on shopping were provided by the retail companies," said Irvansyah.

Advocacy Coordinator BPJS Watch, Timboel Siregar appreciates the Employment BPJS policy to provide daily benefits to the participants. However, Timboel hopes that the value of the discount is significant to increase the purchasing power of the participants.

Employment BPJS even can allocate the funds derived from the investment yields to support the discount program to attract the employees. "We encourage that the card can be used on a daily basis. This will make the employees to rethink to withdraw their money from the program," Timboel says. (Muhammad Farid/Translator)

Editor: Sanny Cicilia