Warsiah (not her real name), a 46-year-old single working mother, was in an accident at an intersection and fainted while riding her motorcycle home from work. Her colleague, who was riding with her, explained that Warsiah had not eaten all day, looked very pale and was shaking after leaving her supervisor’s office. It was later discovered that her contract had not been renewed without any explanation from the institution where she worked.

Among her colleagues, Warsiah was known for her hard work and intelligence. The sudden termination shocked not only her but also the entire company and, of course, her family. The head of the institution declined to comment.

The decision to discontinue her contract remains unexplained; these decisions are often based on personal preferences or whims.

Warsiah has two children, Qoriah (14 years old) and Kodijah (11 years old), who are in senior high and middle school. She lives with her parents, who depend on her support, and she has a three-year motorcycle mortgage and a rental house she pays for monthly, as her contract status prevents her from securing a housing mortgage.

Warsiah is not the only one who has fallen victim to an abusive contract system.

As of February 2024, out of 142 million people employed in Indonesia, 64.2 million, or 45.2 percent of the total employment in Indonesia, fell under the category of contract or honorarium workers, with about 9.8 million employed by the government (National Labor Force Survey/SAKERNAS, 2023). These contract workers range from relatively high-skilled professionals, including doctors, lawyers, lecturers, teachers, accountants, nurses, health workers and other professionals, to relatively unskilled workers.

Globally, it is estimated that almost half of the 1.9 billion workers are contract workers of one type or another (ILO, 2023). In 2023, approximately 2 billion people worked in informal jobs, comprising almost 70 percent of the labor force in developing and low-income countries, and 18 percent in high-income countries.