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View all search resultsNew manpower law to tilt balance to labor
Labor unions hail the new legislation as a win for workers, thanks to more rigid arrangements on contract work, outsourcing, layoffs and severance payments.
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Labor union members protest against the government’s decision to increase subsidized fuel prices on Sept. 6, 2022, outside the House of Representatives building in Jakarta. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
L
abor unions have hailed the overhaul of Indonesia’s labor law as a win for workers, arguing that the new legislation contains arrangements that break with the prevailing legal basis widely perceived to favor employers.
Said Iqbal, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) and the Labor Party, said in a press conference on Wednesday that the manpower protection bill passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday was “far better” than the Job Creation Law.
Said said “over 80 percent” of proposals from labor unions had been adopted in the bill, marking “a reversal” from the omnibus law passed under the previous administration, which he said heavily sided with business owners.
In a judicial review of the Job Creation Law in October 2024, the Constitutional Court gave the government two years to create a separate labor law. The House began the deliberation in August.
While drafts have been circulating for months, the definitive text of the manpower protection bill has yet to be made public. Nihayatul Wafiroh, a lawmaker from House Commission IX overseeing deals with the formulation told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the bill was “being polished”.
She refused to confirm details and suggested “waiting for” it to go online but said the document was receiving final redactional touches to add “missing full stops, commas, spaces, etc.”
However, she said the text had undergone substantial changes from a widely circulated draft, which she said was an old version.
