AUTOMATION: THE IMPACT FOR INDONESIAN WORKERS
By : Muhamad Afdhel Darmawan
As we are entering the era of globalization, we find an era where humans are open and dependent on one another without time and distance. With openness without time and distance, it certainly has impacts on various fields of life, including technology. The impacts of globalization are not only positive ones but also the negative ones. Therefore, many say that globalization is like a double-edged knife.
In this globalization era, technology is developing rapidly, especially technology in the industrial sector where there are currently many technologies used to assist the production process. Therefore, in this globalization era, there is something known as the fourth industrial revolution or commonly known as industry 4.0. Simply put, industry 4.0 can be understood as a development in the industry that leads to automation, where automation itself means the replacement of human labor with mechanical power that automatically performs and manages work so that it does not require human supervision.
With the existence of automation, workers, especially workers in the manufacturing industry or commonly called factory workers will certainly feel the impact directly. How come? With this automation, they are threatened to be dismissed because this automation makes the employee downsizing program unavoidable. As reported by CNBC, global competition in this globalization era has become one of the supporting factors for companies to think of cost efficiency strategies, where cutting the number of employees and then switching to using machines as production tools can be an alternative.
As of 2018, the number of factory workers in Indonesia reached 18.25 million. With this number, factory workers contributed 14.72 percent of the total national workforce. We can imagine, if the automation in the 4.0 industrial revolution is successfully carried out, then there is a possibility that the 18.25 million factory workers will lose their jobs, and this can make the unemployment rate increase. But, why do workers who work in the manufacturing industry sector which then becomes very threatened with this automation? That is because the manufacturing industry sector is an industrial sector that uses a lot of manpower in the field of production. However, this power is a type of power that is distributed in jobs that are very likely to be carried out by machines.
Indonesia, which has many workers working in the manufacturing industry, certainly has to be prepared to face the automation in the fourth industrial revolution. Because if Indonesia did not prepare it, the automation would cause a domino effect. As we know, there are a large number of workers in Indonesia but only a few of them are trained and educated. Therefore, the government has a huge obligation in dealing with this automation. The government must start carrying out various programs and policies to improve the quality of human resources (HR) of Indonesian workers intensively. The government must start running various training programs to improve the various skills needed in the fourth industrial revolution era for the workers so that they are ready to face the automation. However, in this case, the government is not the only one responsible. The workers must also be responsible for being willing and ready to participate in various training programs that might later be made by the government. Because, the fourth industrial revolution, including automation in it, can be an opportunity to improve the Indonesian economy if the HR can become the skilled and qualified one so that they can deal with it.
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