Employers Must Report Information of Foreign Workers by January 10

The situation

The Indonesian Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has published the required content of the annual reports that employers must submit on foreign workers and the training of their Indonesian counterparts and has set a deadline of January 10, 2019 for submission of the first report to the Ministry.

A closer look

The annual filing must consist of the following three reports:

• A list of the foreign workers who hold an emergency, short-term or long-term work permit and their particulars;
• A list of the foreign workers' Indonesian counterparts and steps taken to implement educational/training courses and certificates (to evidence the transfer of knowledge); and
• A list of the foreign workers who cancelled their work permits at the company during the previous year. 
   

A translated copy of the report template is available here.

Impact

Companies will need to ensure they have precise records on file regarding both their current foreign worker population holding work permits and their co-laborer training programs. As the detail on co-laborer training was not required in the past, employers’ administrative departments must ensure this information is readily available. Companies should submit the reports and consult their immigration professional if needed.

Failure to submit the reports may result in administrative sanctions, including a temporary suspension of the company’s ability to sponsor work permits. 

Background

This requirement is in line with the rollout of the new work permit system and related process changes implemented in April 2018. Under the previous work permit scheme (and the current one), companies are required to identify a local Indonesian counterpart (or co-laborer) for each foreign worker as part of the work permit process. 

Before the implementation of the new work permit system, employers were not required to provide proof of and certifications for such co-laborer training to the MOM (although companies were expected to maintain such records).  The new reporting requirement on the training of co-laborers appears to be a step towards more strictly enforcing the knowledge transfer requirements.

Looking ahead

Fragomen anticipates that given the high expected volume of reports to be submitted by Indonesian companies that sponsor work permits for foreign nationals, the deadline is likely to be extended beyond January 10, 2019 (although companies should still prepare for that deadline).  It is also possible that the format and content of the reports could be subject to further changes. Fragomen will report on relevant developments.

We worked closely with PNB Immigration Law Firm to prepare this alert. This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].