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Govt to establish team to accommodate problems in jobs law
Judicial challenge to be filed in conjunction with another round of nationwide protests planned for next Monday and Tuesday.
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Protesters march on Jl. Salemba toward Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta on Oct. 20. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
T
he government plans to establish an independent team to work on problems in the Job Creation Law amid moves from labor unions to file a judicial challenge against the controversial law.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said the team would join academics and public figures to process and accommodate problems that might arise from the law.
“So that later in the process of improvement, either by judicial review, legislative review, or in creating the derivative regulations, all of these [problems] can be accommodated,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement was issued amid plans from several labor unions to file a judicial review against the law with the Constitutional Court next Monday.
Read also: State Secretariat official sanctioned for errors in final draft of jobs law
Members of the unions have demanded for the law to be revoked over fears that it will undermine labor rights, such as contract-based employment terms and severance pay.
The judicial challenge would be filed in conjunction with another round of nationwide protests planned for next Monday and Tuesday.
The jobs law, signed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Monday, has also sparked outcry following the finding of errors in the final draft, in which experts had pointed out articles referring to a nonexistent or wrong clause.
State Secretary Pratikno, however, has downplayed the mistakes as “mere administrative errors” and sanctioned an official responsible for preparing the final draft of the law.
In his statement, Mahfud said the government would also discuss clerical errors with the House of Representatives before making corrections with the Constitutional Court, adding that substantive problems in the bill should also be resolved in the court.
Chief expert staffer Donny Gahral Adian of the Executive Office of the President also said on Thursday that the government would not issue a regulation in lieu of law, as what had been pushed by experts to revise the errors, as he said there was no urgency.
