Jakarta – The Civil Coalition, which is part of the Labour Movement with the People (GEBRAK), is urging the House of Representatives (DPR) to reject the recently issued government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) that replaces the Job Creation Law.
They believe that the Jobs Law (Ciptaker) Perppu violates the constitution because it is not very different from the contents of the Jobs Law itself, which was declared conditionally unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in November 2021.
"We demand that the DPR use and apply Article 22 of the 1945 Constitution, ie not to approve the Perppu Ciptaker that violates and straddles our constitution", said Coalition representative Dewi Kartika from the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) in a statement on Monday January 9.
Kartika explained that the reason given by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to issue the Perppu cannot be accepted. According to the Coalition, no urgent situation exists as stated by Widodo.
Kartika gave as an example an urgency due to a legal vacuum in the area of agrarian affairs. According to Kartika, regulations related to agrarian affairs, such as the procurement of land, can refer to earlier laws, so there is no need for another regulation.
"For example the delay in investment for land procurement for the construction of the IKN [new capital city in Kalimantan] can still use Law Number 2/2012 on Land Procurement", said Kartika. "So there's no critical reason that gives rise to a legal vacuum", she added.
Indonesian Trade Union Congress Alliance Confederation (KASBI) Chairperson Nining Elitos said the same thing in relation to workers or labour. For example, the regulation on working hours can refer to the 2003 labour law.
In addition to this, Elitos also sees many problematic articles in the Perppu. One of these is the Perppu still regulates the stipulations on outsourcing (alih daya), which are the same as the original Jobs Law.
The Perppu refers to the term "alih daya" under Article 81 sections 18 and 20 and explains the legitimacy of applying outsourcing systems.
Under the Labour Law it stipulates that outsourcing is limited to work outside of the principal activities of a company or is not related to the production process.
Under the Jobs Law Perppu however, there is no longer any explanation of the stipulations regulating the limits of what jobs can be outsourced.
"The Jobs Law Perppu could give opportunities to outsourcing companies to provide jobs to workers involving various tasks including tasks whose domains are not supportive", she said.
Separately, DPR Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said that deliberations on the Perppu will be held after the opening of the DPR's next sitting period on Tuesday January 10.
He said that the Perppu Ciptaker will be discussed by the related commissions. "Later we will schedule it for the related technical commissions, after of course the opening of the plenary meeting tomorrow", said Ahmad at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta.
On December 30 last year President Widodo issued a Perppu on the Jobs Law that annulled the conditionally unconstitutional status of the law resulting from the Constitutional Court's November ruling.
Widodo claimed that there were various crisis that caused him to issue the Perppu. According to Widodo, Indonesia is haunted by the threats of global uncertainty.
On Thursday January 5, civil society groups, from students to university lecturers and advocates, submitted a judicial review of the Perppu with the Constitutional Court. (yla/thr/tsa)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Sipil Desak DPR Tolak Perppu Cipta Kerja: Melanggar Konstitusi".]