Jakarta – The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that a law requiring migrant workers to have a minimum junior high school diploma qualification was against the law.

The court ruled Article 35 of the 2004 Migrant Workers' Placement and Protection Law was unconstitutional after a request for judicial review submitted by three labor recruitment and exporting agencies – Apjati, Ajaspac, Himsataki – and Indonesian Manpower Watch (IMW).

Challenging the law, the labor associations said it contravened the Constitution that said individuals should be given equal chances to get jobs.

However, in the ruling the court said the article's minimum age requirement of 18 years of age should stand to ensure minors were not sent overseas to work.

"The panel of judges declare that the article... is against the 1945 Constitution," court Chief Justice Jimly Asshiddiqie said, reading out the verdict.

"The limitation of a junior high school diploma stipulated in the article goes against... (rights guaranteed in) the Constitution; the right to survive and the right to prosper," Jimly said.

He said until the government could guarantee minimum nine-year educations for all its citizens, the law was unfair.

The ruling was issued with dissenting opinions by two of eight judges – H.A.S. Natabaya and Achmad Roestandi.

Roestandi argued setting minimum requirements for migrant workers would encourage people to continue their schooling. "Therefore, the requirement is not a constitutional matter but a policy choice by lawmakers," he said.

Around 62 percent of migrant workers sent abroad, mostly to work as maids, only had elementary school diplomas.

The court rejected the associations' appeal for it to review several other articles in the law, which included a requirement for a labor recruitment agency to have Rp 3 billion as start-up capital and to deposit Rp 500 million in a state banks as collateral.