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House plans to pass controversial jobs bill in Monday’s plenary session
Labor unions and civil rights groups are set to stage large-scale protests from Monday to Thursday to voice opposition against the bill.
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Workers stage a rally in front of the House of Representatives complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Aug. 25. They opposed the omnibus bill on job creation and called for the government to do more to prevent mass layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
T
he House of Representatives plans to pass the controversial omnibus bill on job creation into law in a plenary session on Monday, sooner than its initial plan on Thursday.
The lawmakers and the government had been holding meetings, even on weekends, to expedite the deliberation and on Sunday the two parties agreed to pass the bill into law. The plan emerged despite mounting opposition from members of the public, particularly labor groups, as the endorsement of the bill was feared to eclipse workers’ rights.
A House document obtained by The Jakarta Post stated that the bill's endorsement would take place in a plenary session on Monday at 2 p.m. concurrently with the House speaker’s closing speech for the first session of the 2020-2021 sitting term.
House Legislation body (Baleg) deputy chairman Willy Aditya confirmed the plan with the Post.
“Yes, that’s the plan,” he said.
The House’s Steering Committee (Bamus) is scheduled to meet earlier on Monday to finalize the schedule for the endorsement in the plenary meeting after receiving a letter from Baleg’s chairman on Oct. 2 about the job creation bill.
Another Baleg deputy chairman, Achmad Baidowi, said Baleg was waiting for the result of Bamus' Monday meeting to decide on the plenary session's schedule to endorse the bill.
House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad confirmed on Monday the plan to move the plenary session forward from Thursday to Monday.
"We will hold a leadership meeting on the plenary schedule, which was originally scheduled for Oct. 8," he said.
However, he claimed that the House was still undecided over the date of the plenary session to pass the omnibus bill on job creation.
Seven House factions have conveyed their approval of the bill, namely the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the Gerindra Party, the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP). Two other factions – the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) – have objected to the bill.
Labor unions and civil rights groups are set to stage large-scale protests from Monday to Thursday to voice opposition against the bill.
