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Palace operatives scramble to lobby labor groups over omnibus bill
Presidential Spokesperson Fadjroel Rachman said the government would continue to engage labor groups to win their support for the legislation.
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Thousands of workers from the Indonesian Worker Union Confederation (KSPI) march on the street in front of the House of Representatives complex in Central Jakarta to protest the omnibus bill on job creation on Jan. 20. (JP/Moch. Fiqih Prawira)
T
he fate of the omnibus bill for job creation — a key piece of legislation for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s sweeping economic reform agenda — appears to be hanging in the balance, with the State Palace struggling to get the labor unions on board the President’s ambitious project.
Jokowi, whose coalition controls the majority of seats at the House of Representatives, has pledged to get the bill passed into law within 100 days after submitting the legislation to the lawmakers. The Palace, however, still lacks the support of labor unions that suspect the bill would undermine their rights, forcing government officials to revise the initial draft, keep its content from public scrutiny and delay its submission to the House.
Presidential Spokesperson Fadjroel Rachman said the government would continue to engage labor groups to win their support for the legislation.
“We are devising an engagement communication strategy [to secure their support]. We hope that all parties that are impacted by the laws and policies would be part of the effort to settle them,” said Fadjroel at the Presidential Palace complex in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The Office of the Presidential Staff (KSP), the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister and the Manpower Ministry have been tasked with approaching the labor groups to get their input for the bill, according to Fadjroel.
“There are 26 labor groups and [we] continue to communicate with them and we hope that the communication was followed through to their members,” he said, claiming that the President instructed his aides to devise the bill without reducing the welfare of workers.
It is unclear, however, if the lobbying efforts by the Palace operatives are actually working.
