[From an oped piece in Kompas.id by Angga Hermanda titled "May Day, Mayday This is an Emergency!"]
Every year May 1 is celebrated as International Labor Day or May Day as it is commonly called internationally. In general, labourers are people who work for others by receiving a wage. However, more broadly, labourers are part of the working class. Based on this consideration, the government established labour day as a national holiday.
Despite this, every year May Day is felt to be getting heavier than in past years. Before the commemoration of Labour Day this year, many workers have been on holiday due to being laid off and marginalised in terms of their rights. This situation is not just occurring in one or two cases, and termination of employment (PHK) has become a national tragedy.
The situation was exacerbated by the rebirth of the Omnibus Law on Job Creation (UU Cipta Kerja) which was declared conditionally unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in November 2021. The new Jobs Law Number 6 of 2023 still contains regulations that harm the working class.
The problems
There are at least nine regulations that have been questioned in the Jobs Law. First, low wages. The minimum wage is no longer negotiated with labour organisations and there are still guidelines on certain indexes that make wages lower.
Second, regarding outsourcing (contract labour) for life for all types of work. Outsourcing is just another word for modern slavery. Although there are regulations restricting what kind work can be outsourced, and what cannot, the government should not position itself as an outsourcing agent.
Third, an issue that is also crucial is that workers are contracted continuously without a time limit, severance pay is low, layoffs are facilitated, and the two-month long break is removed. Fourth, and no less heartbreaking, although the Job Creation Law regulates female workers who take menstrual and maternity leave, there is no assurance of getting a salary.
Fifth, for workers who work five days a week, the right to two days leave can be revoked. Sixth, the burden of workers' working hours adds up to 12 hours a day because four hours overtime is allowed per day so that the level of fatigue and potential death is higher. Seventh, on foreign manual labourers, it is easy for them to enter and be employed in Indonesia.
Eighth, the oppression caused by the Jobs Law is not only experienced by workers. Other working classes, such as farmers, are also increasingly squeezed. The land bank born from the womb of the Jobs Law degrades agrarian reform, land redistribution for farmers and people who work in rural areas...
The full article in Bahasa Indonesia can be read here: https://www.kompas.id/baca/opini/2024/04/29/may-day-mayday-this-is-emergency