ACVCSCIASIA.ORG, GENEVA – Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 6 of 2023 concerning the Stipulation of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law Number 2 of 2022 concerning Job Creation Becomes an Act was discussed at the 111th International Labor Conference session.
This most controversial law was discussed directly at the 111th International Labor Conference (ILC) session on Thursday (8/6/2023) yesterday local time. The 111th ILC Session was originally scheduled to be held from 5 – 16 June 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland.
“In the end the Job Creation Law was included in the discussion of the 111th ILC session which was initiated by KSBSI (Confederation of All Indonesian Trade Unions) and KSPI (Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions) through a long struggle and discussions for approximately 2.5 years with the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) ).” said KSBSI President Elly Rosita Silaban quoted on Friday (9/6/2023).
According to Elly, initially the Indonesian case was included in the long list, number 18, through the strict lobbying conducted by ITUC, Job Creation was included in special spotlight at one of the top ranks.
“As the head of the delegation for 2023 (every year the head of the delegation changes), it is KSPI who reads the statements, statements prepared through a series of discussions accompanied by ITUC.” explained Elly.
The former Chair of Labor 20 at the 2022 Bali G-20 High Level Conference emphasized that without KSBSI’s approval, there would be no discussion of the Job Creation Law at the ILC Geneva, Switzerland. Therefore, Elly emphasized that there should be no confederation claiming to fight alone.
“So friends, there should not be a certain confederation claiming that this is the result of their own struggle, because without our approval from KSBSI, this case would never have reached the ILC’s annual international assembly.” she insisted.
Meanwhile, Maria Emeninta, a representative of the ACVCSC International Asia Regional who is also a KSBSI Labor activist, in her opinion writing, reviewed how the ILC session discussed the Job Creation Law.
“ILC-111 Geneva Session, Today, at 15.00 local time or 20.00 Jakarta time on Thursday, 8 June 2023, at the ILO session raised the issue of indications of violations of freedom of association and collective bargaining with the emergence of Law No. 6 of 2023 concerning Establishment of Government Regulations Substitute Law Number 2 of 2022 concerning Job Creation to become Law.” wrote Maria in Opinion quoted, Friday (9/6/2023).
He who attended the direct trial in Geneva stated that, during the trial, a long debate and ‘counter’ issues occurred very tightly, between the Indonesian government which provided defense and the trade unions which challenged this spectacular (controversial) regulation.
Meanwhile, as expected, entrepreneurs are on the side of the government which clearly conveys that the formation of the Job Creation Law is (claimed) to stimulate investment.
“No less than 6 interventions from strong trade unions originating from the United States, Brazil, South Korea, the Netherlands and Australia reviewed different points of view on the badness of the Perppu and Job Creation, starting from the issue of unconstitutional law-making procedures, the substance of various derivative regulations that degrading labor rights related to wages, outsourcing, contract labor and freedom of association to the government which has been asked by the Constitutional Court to cancel and improve regulations but the government instead forces itself to issue new laws similar to the reasons of the Russia-Ukraine war and ease of investment.” he explained.
Maria wrote, the spotlight was quite significant enough to invite the buzz of the participants when Clare Middlemas from ACTU Australia who was the main spokesperson for workers highlighted the case of “stay cation” female workers in West Java who had to be willing to be invited by the employer to spend the night if they wanted to continue their work contract.
As many as 3 businessmen from the United States, Belarus, Algeria, Greece and Brunei Darussalam who represented ASEAN defended the Indonesian government by supporting the government’s statement submitted by Surya Lukita Warman from the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, even implicitly admitting the need to improve this law.
While the entrepreneur’s objections submitted by Myra Hanartani-APINDO try to strengthen the argument for the importance of economic stimulus and several comments which point to improvements in labor conditions in Indonesia including the growth of jobs, as well as the increase in the presence of trade unions, it can be concluded that freedom of association has not deteriorated, but also asked the ILO to provide technical assistance to address this issue.
Additional objections which further prove the bad impact of Job Creation and the Perppu were delivered by 3 observers from IndustryAll, BWI and PSI with several cases at the company level and different sectors which ended with labor spokesperson Clare Middlemas that the comments submitted proved that Indonesia was in a serious condition regarding violations of freedom of association and negotiate together.
“Exploitation, discrimination are evidence of the weak implementation of the 98th convention in this country. There is no progress that is good enough and the government sits down with workers to discuss these issues and cases. So, the government should postpone and amend the implementation of Law No. 6 of 2023, too concretely supporting the implementation of collective bargaining at the regional and company levels.In the end, the workers asked the committee to make a direct contact mission in Indonesia.
The Special Committee on Standard Norms, which is the most important Committee in the ILO, will study this case and make a decision before June 12 before the end of the 2023 ILO annual session,” said Maria Emeninta. (sumber: ksbsi)
