Iman Usman, a cofounder of Ruangguru, clarified through his personal Twitter account that all interns were paid differently based on various factors, such as type of work, field and other things.   

Even before the Ruangguru case, the issue about the exploitative nature of companies in the country had grabbed public attention and been discussed publicly or secretly between workers’ lunch intervals or weekend hangouts where friends typically share their stories about how crazy work has been.

However, the complaints only exist within those junctures. Soon after they return to work, they will put on their “yes sir” masks again and follow their superiors’ orders. 

While regular workers are protected by some provisions in labor laws that have been revised multiple times, interns are not. In other words, there is still no comprehensive legal framework that covers the field of internship.

Take the example of Article 1(1) of Manpower Ministerial Regulation No. 6/2020 concerning the implementation of domestic internship, which defines an internship as “a part of the work training system that is being implemented under the training center and working directly under the guidance and supervision of an instructor or competent employee in the goods production process/services in a company to gain certain skill or specialty”.

The goal and parameters of gaining a skill or specialty are very obscure, it is only stated in Article 20 that the interns will obtain some sort of certification from the company. Further, the minimum requirement of the working agreement as stated in Article 10 only covers the requirement to include the rights and obligations of interns and the internship providers, the internship program, the internship period and their allowance.

Popular

Analysis: Prabowo’s approval rating 51 percent and falling

Poverty falls, but the line is too low, economists say

A preventable disaster