T

he deliberation of the disputed omnibus bill on job creation has met further resistance as the country is facing massive layoffs due to an economic slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

The draft bill, which seeks to concurrently amend 79 laws including the 2003 Manpower Law, has been vehemently opposed by labor unions that have condemned the bill for cutting labor rights and instead benefitting employers.

As millions have been furloughed and laid off, labor unions plan to hold mass rallies nationwide on April 30 to oppose the bill despite a ban on crowds under large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) that have been implemented in Jakarta and other cities.

The massive wave of layoffs has seen several parties in the government coalition at the House of Representatives join the public in opposing the bill.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the NasDem Party — two major factions in the House — have pushed for the government to drop labor provisions from the legislation process.

PDI-P lawmaker Rieke Diah Pitaloka, who is also the deputy chairwoman of the House’s Legislation Body (Baleg), suggested that the labor provisions, which comprise one of 11 clusters that will be regulated by the omnibus bill, be deliberated in a separate regulation, adding that the main substance of the bill was to relax regulations related to business and investment.

“It would be better if the labor provisions were separated [in a different regulation] so that the bill’s [intention] is clear: to ease investment and licensing,” said Rieke, arguing that such an arrangement was necessary because many people had lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

The ruling party in the government coalition, she said, had been reluctant to deliberate the bill since the beginning because of strong public resistance to it.

When the government introduced the omnibus bill at the House in February, it proposed revising articles in the 2003 Manpower Law that regulate industrial relations, working hours, wages, job termination and foreign workers.

The Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister later established a tripartite forum to facilitate a dialogue among representatives of labor unions, business groups and the government. It invited 14 labor unions and the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) to discuss the proposed revisions. But most of the labor unions left the forum after discovering that it was a hearing mechanism instead of a negotiation table that would enable them to block the provisions that they considered harmful to workers.

Among the disputed issues was a plan to remove from the Manpower Law an article that regulates employers’ duty to prevent layoffs.

The omnibus bill also no longer obliges employers to pay compensation of rights (UPH) to laid-off workers and instead stipulates that these rights can be regulated in a work contract or agreement. In fact, it strips out all provisions related to severance payments beyond the basic allowance.

The unions have also challenged other articles in the bill, including provisions to relax requirements for outsourcing, hiring appropriately qualified foreign workers, as well as new formulas to calculate regional minimum wages.

With at least 2.8 million people having lost their jobs as of April 13 and millions more expected to be out of work as a result of massive mobility restrictions implemented to prevent transmission of the coronavirus, unions have pushed harder for the cancellation of the bill.

Congress of Indonesia Labor Alliance (KASBI) chairwoman Nining Elitos said the omnibus bill, as a whole, was harmful not only to workers, but to people’s welfare and fundamental rights in accessing natural resources.

“We, the people, want the omnibus bill to be dropped because it won’t do any good to people as a whole,” she said.

Nining urged the government and the House to shift their focus onto mitigating the impacts of COVID-19, saying business owners had used the pandemic as an excuse to cut employees. As many as 25,000 KASBI members have been laid off or furloughed, and many of them have not received the promised government assistance.

“Even without the omnibus law, the situation has become so bad, let alone if [the bill] is enforced. It will become a humanity crisis,” Nining said.

Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI) president Said Iqbal said he would have preferred the labor provisions in the omnibus bill to be dropped completely. “We could use the existing Manpower Law [to regulate labor],” Said told The Jakarta Post.

The unions have sent letters to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and the House, demanding that they stop the deliberation process and focus on battling the coronavirus. They also demanded the government pay workers’ salaries during the PSBB-induced furloughs and prevent companies from conducting massive layoffs.

Baleg deputy chairman Willy Aditya of the NasDem Party said taking out the labor provisions from the omnibus bill was the middle ground that should be taken to resolve the deadlock in the bill deliberation.

“Without the labor provisions, the omnibus bill can be renamed ‘the omnibus bill on the facilitation of investment licensing’,” he told the Post.

Another NasDem lawmaker, Taufik Basari, suggested the government resubmit a new draft bill, since the end of the pandemic was nowhere in sight.

Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said the government would not submit a new draft of the bill, considering that swift action should be taken to facilitate an economic rebound after the pandemic is over.