Death from overwork among platform-based drivers in Indonesia: An interview with Syarif Arifin, an activist with Lembaga Informasi Perburuhan Sedane (LIPS) Indonesia(Jun. 2024)

Michelle Jang

Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health

The Congress of the Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Victims (ANROEV) was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 8 to 10 May 2024. As a member of the Karoshi Watch in East Asia network, the Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health together with OSH Link from Taiwan and POSSE from Japan, organized a session on the impact of COVID-19 on overwork and overwork deaths in Asia to share issues with participants from across the region. The Indonesian labor organization, LIPS, also joined the session, highlighting the issue of overwork and overwork suicide among app-based platform workers in Indonesia.

Until now, the problem of overwork deaths has mostly been reported in East Asian countries and rarely in Southeast Asia. To find out more about how overwork is killing young workers in Indonesia, we spoke with LIPS activist, Syarif Arifin.  

LIPS is an acronym for Lembaga Informasi Perburuhan Sedane, which means “Sedane Labor Resources Center.” LIPS was founded in 1991 by the late Indonesian labor activist, Fauzi Abdullah (1949-2009). LIPS has five permanent activists and focuses on empowering workers, building unions and organizing labor movements. Syarif Arifin has been involved with the organization since 2010 and currently serves as Chair of the Executive Committee. 

Emergence of platform giants based on growth in the app-based platform market

There are four major platform companies in Indonesia: Gojek, which was established in Indonesia in 2010; Grab, which entered the country in 2014; and two relatively new entrants to the Indonesian market, Russia’s Maxim (2018) and US-based inDrive (2022). 

The two largest of these four are Gojek and Grab. Grab was first established in Malaysia in 2012, later moving its headquarters to Singapore before expanding to other Southeast Asian countries the following year. In June 2014, it began its expansion into Indonesia, initially launching GrabCar and GrabBike, followed by GrabFood, GrabMart and 10 other services. Gojek, meanwhile, was founded in 2010 as a call center to connect drivers and passengers, but began to expand in earnest in 2015 with the launch of its app. In 2021, it merged with e-commerce company, Tokopedia, to become GoTo, and now has a huge amount of capital to expand and compete with Grab.  

The main businesses of these platform companies are motorcycle taxis and delivery of food and other goods. Due to the lack of public transport infrastructure and severe urban traffic congestion in Indonesia, people rely extensively on motorcycle taxis as a main mode of transport. 

Platform drivers are partners, not workers! No working time regulations

In Indonesia, Grab and other platforms define drivers as partners and classify them as independent contractors, or mitra (partner) in Bahasa Indonesia. This means that Grab does not have to provide drivers with employment rights such as minimum wage, holidays, vehicles and protective equipment. As a result, drivers are not equal partners with the platform, and the decision-making process is a sham partnership where all decisions are made unilaterally by the platform. 

As Syarif Arifin noted, “Platform drivers work 12 to 15 hours a day. The Indonesian labor law sets 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week as regular working hours, but drivers are not recognized as workers and are not subject to working time regulations.”

Syarif Arifin added that, “The platform uses AI algorithms to control the driver’s work. It forces drivers to start work at the same time every day and to complete a certain number of calls every day. If a driver starts later than usual or ends the day without completing a certain number of calls, the platform punishes the driver with sanctions such as silent calls (limiting call alerts), suspended calls (excluding call alerts) or cut-off calls (blocking call alerts).”

Platform drivers who are semi-coerced into working long hours by platforms are not workers and cannot be paid extra for hours worked over and above their regular working hours. 

Syarif Arifin revealed that, “Since drivers cannot earn enough money by working on one platform, they register and work on two to four platforms, each of which requires them to buy their own delivery equipment (helmet, jacket, etc.) and wear it during transport, and they change their equipment each time they move from one platform to another. The driver recently found dead on the road from overwork was wearing equipment from three different platforms. Buying equipment is also a big burden for drivers, who pay for it by deducting it from their daily earnings every day for three months.”

The average monthly income of a platform driver is IDR 3,000,000 (~USD$183), while the average monthly expenditure is IDR 4,000,000 (~USD$244), meaning that even if they work hard, they are always in the red. 

Overwork suicides among drivers trapped in a debt cycle

Suicide is a taboo in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country. According to LIPS’ research, 15 platform transport drivers attempted suicide between 2017 and 2022. Most were young workers under the age of 30. Unable to enter the regular job market due to the recession, many young people take on temporary jobs as platform transporters until they can find permanent work. 

Syarif Arifin lamented that, “It’s about being trapped in a cycle of debt. You start your job and the first month is great, but then all of a sudden, in the second month, your calls start to drop off. You’re paying off your transportation every day, and you’re driving yourself crazy because you’re not getting any calls. It’s the same with every platform. In the beginning, the ratio of drivers to passengers was right, but now there are so many drivers that the number of passengers almost equals the number of drivers, which is why the number of calls drops. Drivers who need money immediately turn to online loans offered by the platform, pay the platform’s fees and interest, and get back into a vicious cycle of debt.”

According to LIPS’ research, four out of five transporters are in debt, ranging from as little as IDR 500,000 (~USD$30) to as much as IDR 1,000,000 (~USD$61). The stress of working long hours, uncontrollable working conditions, and the pressure of debt can lead drivers to develop mental illnesses such as depression and eventually attempt suicide as a way of escaping their suffering. 

Platform drivers unionize to demand workers’ rights

Indonesia has a very low unionization rate of 2%, which makes it difficult to ensure that workers’ legal rights under the law are upheld on the ground. Furthermore, as the app-based platform business is a new industry, there is no relevant legal regulation in place. 

The long working hours of platform drivers are serious enough to cause overwork deaths, but the platform companies, who are the real employers, use legal loopholes to evade responsibility. Since 2017, drivers have been voluntarily organizing themselves into unions and taking action against the platform companies’ abuses. 

Syarif Arifin noted that, “The trade union organized by platform drivers is called Community. The name is different to distinguish it from the pro-government, pro-business unions in traditional industries, which have a negative image. The Community’s demands are threefold: first, that drivers be recognized as workers; second, that app-based platform companies provide social security for drivers (employment insurance, health insurance, vehicle insurance, etc.); and third, that they guarantee a minimum number of calls to ensure a basic income for drivers (a kind of minimum wage concept) if they stay in a contract for a certain period of time (e.g., three years).”

The Indonesian government and platform companies have yet to respond to drivers’ needs. Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has kept fuel prices such as petrol and diesel low through government subsidies even during the global oil price crisis. However, in September of last year the subsidy budget burden rose to 25% of government revenue, leading to a 30% increase in fuel prices. Despite fierce mass protests against the hike, mainly by workers and students, the price increase was not reversed and the burden of the fuel price hike was passed on to platform drivers. 

The last question of the interview was about the future plans of LIPS. 

Syarif Arifin said that, “I would like to share labor issues and exchange experiences with other Asian countries. I am particularly interested in learning about the organizing and activism of platform workers in South Korea, and I would like to support platform workers in Indonesia and help them form a union.”