Benefits & facilities

Creating a good standard of living and a strong sense of community on the estates is critical to attracting and retaining employees, particularly given the remote location in which we operate. REA encourages employees to bring their families to live on the estates as this improves morale and creates a more balanced community. REA is conscious that living in a remote location can be challenging and encourages all staff to leave the estates on a regular basis by taking long weekends in addition to their annual leave allowance.

Housing

Good quality housing and community facilities for employees are a priority, and employees are encouraged to support the group’s ongoing programme of renovation and maintenance with regular awards for best kept homes and village emplacements. The group continues to build houses using "batako" bricks, which are produced in-house by mixing boiler ash from the mills with cement. Use of this material has significantly reduced both the cost and environmental footprint of new houses over the years. The village emplacements are provided with medical clinics, crèches, mosques, churches, sports facilities and markets.

Employee cooperative shops (REA Mart), established with the support of the group’s community development department, serve the group’s northern and southern estate areas, supplying everyday groceries and household items for the benefit of employees living in estate housing. The shops are able to bulk purchase and thereby source products competitively. REA Mart has continued to provide supplies throughout the period of the pandemic.

Schools

In 2008, the group established a foundation to manage the network of schools across the estates. These schools are authorised in accordance with government regulations. The foundation manages 27 schools, comprising 13 preschools, 13 primary schools and one secondary school. At the end of 2021, there were 2,669 students (515 preschool, 1,903 primary school and 251 secondary school children) enrolled in the group’s school system. During the height of the Covid epidemic, learning in small groups and online successfully replaced classroom learning.

Healthcare

Healthcare provision is usually extremely limited in the remote rural areas in Indonesia, such as in the locations of the group’s operations. The group has therefore established a network of 19 clinics to provide healthcare to employees, their family members and members of the local communities living in proximity to the group’s operations. There is a team of two doctors, 16 paramedics, 13 midwives, one dentist and one pharmacist on site. All employees receive training in basic life support skills and staff at certain levels receive training in first aid. Employees are also provided with information on, and training to prevent, the ten most prevalent infectious diseases, such as dengue, haemorrhagic fever and typhoid fever, and female employees receive training in the early detection and prevention of cervical cancer.

Monthly immunisation programmes are provided for families, including against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) as well as polio in collaboration with external medical professionals as part of an Indonesian government programme. General and specific work related medical check-ups are also performed for employees, with a range of annual or semi-annual tests that include blood cholinesterase and spirometry or lung saturation tests for potential chemical and dust exposure, audiometry for noise exposure particularly in the mills and fabrication department, and workload endurance, fitness and ergometry for certain field workers, conducted in conjunction with the local Department of Employment. Employees who exhibit unsuitability for the requirements of their role are rotated into other, more suitable, roles. Random drug testing is conducted throughout the year across the group to discourage drug usage and addiction amongst employees and families resident on the group’s estates.

Throughout 2021 the group adopted a rigorous testing, tracing and isolation regime at all operational sites and strict restrictions remained in place for employees, contractors and visitors to the group’s premises. In line with government guidelines, protocols were maintained to limit face to face interactions, to promote the use of face masks and encourage social distancing, regular hand washing and sanitation of work and communal facilities. These actions served to minimise the number of positive Covid cases with the first case only recorded on the estates in November 2020. For 2021, 666 positive Covid cases were identified and, to date, there have been 27 hospitalisations with all such identified cases making a full recovery. Implementation of the protocols continues with regular screening and testing so as to minimise transmission of infection. To date, Covid infections among the workforce have been at around 0.5 per cent, the majority with no serious symptoms as categorised by the Indonesian health department.

The group has also provided and promoted vaccination through either the Indonesian Government programme, for those who are eligible, or a private vaccination programme funded by the group with the aim of securing vaccination for all employees and families living on the group’s estates. By the end of 2021, all employees and many family members had been offered at least one vaccination, and second and third doses are being administered though 2022.

In recognition of the group’s programmes for the prevention and control of Covid in the workplace, Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower, through the Director General of Manpower Supervision and Occupational Health and Safety, the group was awarded a platinum rating in 2022.