Jakarta Governor Speaks of Jobs Affected by COVID-19 Restriction

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan on Monday recognized the lines of work in need of help from the government, especially under the city’s large-scale social restriction (PSBB) protocol due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease caused by the coronavirus. 

“These are the groups that need support and additional daily supplies. [The lines of work] include conventional taxi drivers, online taxi drivers, and freelancers. We also have migrant workers that still need to work and stay in Jakarta,” said Anies Baswedan in the video conference that was held with the city’s entrepreneurs on Tuesday, April 28.

On April 19, Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah announced there are 449,000 workers in Jakarta that have been either laid off or put on unpaid leave during the PSBB protocol, which bans the operations of several offices that do not meet certain requirements. 

Lately, the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) conducted a quick survey and found that a number of workers that were victims of mass-layoff had ended up being homeless in the area of Tanah Abang, Jatinegara, and Kuningan. 

These reports motivated Anies Baswedan to gather entrepreneurs and rally them to participate in helping these people that are affected by the semi-quarantine protocol. “The challenge we face now is that by restricting the mobility of people, these people lose their job, which is a loss to the economy,” said the Jakarta governor. 

The Jakarta PSBB social restriction protocol has been extended to May 22 in an attempt to break the chain of coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission. 

LANI DIANA WIJAYA