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Omnibus law on job creation to offer fresh hope for migrant workers
Despite the controversy over the omnibus bill on job creation, the government has given an assurance that the bill will have a positive impact on migrant labor reform by allowing for a more streamlined bureaucracy to expedite a grand vision of improving conditions for Indonesians working overseas
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espite the controversy over the omnibus bill on job creation, the government has given an assurance that the bill will have a positive impact on migrant labor reform by allowing for a more streamlined bureaucracy to expedite a grand vision of improving conditions for Indonesians working overseas.
The Agency for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BP2MI) estimates that about 6 million Indonesians worked overseas last year, equivalent to nearly 5 percent of the country’s total workforce. Together they sent US$11 billion back to Indonesia in remittances in 2019.
However, this number represents only those who leave the country to work legally, meaning that there are thousands more who work illegally overseas and oftentimes these illegal, or nonprocedural, workers tend to be a source of problems.
The authorities in El Tari Airport in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), for example, stopped 966 nonprocedural workers from flying overseas in 2019, but many more managed to fly out, Kompas reported.
In 2019, an estimated 116 people from NTT died as illegal workers in Malaysia, which remains the favorite destination for Indonesian migrant workers.
The chairman of the Association of Labor Export Companies (Apjati) NTT branch, John Salmon Saragih, pointed to a lack of job opportunities in NTT as the reason why many illegal workers came from the province.
“People in NTT are wanderers, and there are [more] opportunities abroad. Also, the [foreign] employers like Indonesian workers,” he told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday.
The rampant cases of illegal overseas working, he added, were not a result of whether the jobs were good or bad.
“We think that the government's service is not good enough, making prospective migrant workers wait for too long [for departure] as a result of complicated procedures,” said John
“Meanwhile, they [workers] are impatient because they have been pressured by their economic conditions, not to mention the push from the employers who want them as soon as possible,” he told the Post, adding that these circumstances led to prospective migrant workers choosing to depart illegally rather than following procedural processes.
As such, the association supports the central government’s plan to enact the omnibus law on job creation as it could help to streamline the prolonged bureaucratic process — something that John and his colleagues have consistently sought from the NTT provincial administration.
NTT Governor Viktor Laiskodat said the authorities in NTT found it difficult to handle and monitor illegal workers from the province.
“We don’t know where they live [in Malaysia]. If they are not recorded, how are we supposed to know their whereabouts,” he said in November as quoted by kompas.com, adding that such cases would recur in the future.
Meanwhile, BP2MI acting head Tatang Razak said the omnibus bill on job creation was an opportunity to increase the protection for migrant workers as the law was designed, among other larger goals, to ease investment from the private sector, which hopefully will increase investment in the manpower sector, such as creating more skills-training centers at the local level.
Following the enactment of the 2017 Migrant Workers Law, the role of the local administration is supposed to be increased, such as by providing training centers, disseminating job information and empowering people who want to become migrant workers.
In terms of providing training facilities, however, not all local administrations in the country are capable of carrying out the task.
“They [the facilities] are still limited and if there is any, not yet accredited,” Tatang told the Post last week.
On the other hand, providing good facilities requires large sums of money. Therefore, the government needs to invite the private sector.
With more training facilities, the government hopes to send skilled workers and phase out low-skill workers.
“With easier permits [for the private sector], more accessible training facilities [for prospective migrant workers], we can upscale the quality of our workers so that they can work in the higher level market,” Tatang said.
However, activists advocating on behalf of migrant workers have voiced their concerns over the bill, which was handed over to the House of Representatives recently.
The Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI) chairman Hariyanto said the law did not solve the real problems.
He argued that the migration of labor was an effect of poverty rooted in shrinking opportunities at home.
“Due to massive land conversion, many people are losing their jobs as, for instance, farmers. They are marginalized by development and then forced to become migrant workers,” Hariyanto said.
The omnibus law on job creation is aimed at improving the ease of doing business in Indonesia by making it much easier to issue building permits (IMB) and environmental impact analyses (Amdals), among other measures.
“If all that happens, employment access for the workforce will be improved. They will have more choices other than seeking jobs abroad,” Hariyanto told the Post on Friday over the phone.
He added that according to the SBMI’s statistics, most migrant workers have low education levels.
