WFH Jakarta Is Restarting to Reduce Air Pollution in the Capital of Indonesia

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - The government of Jakarta is officially restarting the Work From Home (WFH) for half of the civil servants. This is being done to reduce the air pollution in Jakarta and evade its dangerous impacts to people's health.

The IQAir website has ranked Jakarta among the cities with the worst air quality in the world. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) finally reacted to the news and supported Jakarta's government to apply the hybrid works.

The Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono said on Sunday that the WFH policy will be enacted for three months.

"The first trial will be done for three months starting 21 August to 21 October 2023," said Heru.  The governor added that his office will use video calls to monitor the civil servants. 

This policy does not affect the civil servants who work in the health and education sectors.

Last week, according to Heru, the powerful Coordinating Minister for Investment and Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan also asked the ministries in Jakarta to apply WFH policy.

As of the rush hour on Monday evening (07:30 PM), Jakarta is now already out of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world, per IQAir website. It is currently on number 11.

The Ministry Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform also permits the governments in other regions to apply WFH policy when it's needed.

More Private Sectors Also Demand WFH 

The sentiment for WFH is still considerably strong in Indonesia. Some social media users said they envy the policy for Jakarta's civil servants.

"Only the civil servants, the private sectors are not included. Sad," said one social media user on X.

"So happy the roads will get quieter (hopefully)," another hoped.

"Workers in factories can only compliant," another user tweeted.

Indonesia's government had mostly stopped WFH in 2022, but some workers in private sectors are still able to work from home or not come to the office every day.

However, the President of Indonesian Trade Union Confederation Said Iqbal said he disagrees if WFH only applies for the civil servants or officer workers. He requests the factory workers to get WFH too.

"It's impossible if the factories are having days off, therefore the working hours must be arranged," Said Iqbal explained in a press conference.

His idea is that employers should reduce workers' shifts.

"Do you think factory workers are not humans? What kind of policy is this? There is injustice, there is discrimination," said Said.

Ministry of environment said that emission from vehicles contributed to the air pollution in the capital city, although President Jokowi also mentioned coal as the problems. 

The Speaker of People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Bambang Soesatyo also pointed out that the steam power plants which use coals are allegedly causing the air pollution. He asked the government to have a "thorough regulation refinement" to deal with the power plants' issues.

Bambang also hopes that the policymakers will soon find consensus to solve the air pollution. 

"Until now the stakeholders are still not reaching consensus in concluding as well as informing the main cause of the pollution amidst how the Capital's air has already qualified as unhealthy," said Bambang in his statement on Monday.

Another ideas from President Jokowi to reduce air pollution is to expand the green spaces and encourage the use of mass transportations, including the brand new MRT and LRT, and the electric vehicles.

Devira Prastiwi, Sulung Lahitani, Maulandy Rizky Bayu Kencana, and Arief Rahman Hakim contributed to this report.