The Constitutional Court Rules On Unconstitutional Job Creation Law, Labor Requests To Be Remade

JAKARTA - The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) considers that all regulations related to employment in Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation and their derivation must be suspended. This is in response to the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) which declared the law unconstitutional.

For your information, the applicant in the formal judicial review of the Job Creation Act is KSPI. Meanwhile, in the material test is KSPSI Andi Gani.

KSPI's attorney, Said Salahudin, said that referring to the Constitutional Court's decision, the government must rewrite the Job Creation Law from scratch. Therefore, the legal basis for making the job creation law must be revised, namely Law Number 15 of 2019 concerning Amendments to Law Number 12 of 2011 concerning the Establishment of Legislation.

Furthermore, Said explained that the Job Creation Law was declared unconstitutional because he was afraid to comply with Law No. 15 of 2019 thus, when rejecting Law No. 15 of 2011 it had to be revised to accommodate the points in the Job Creation Law.

Then, Said said, after Law No. 15 of 2019 was revised, the government had to rewrite the job creation law. This means that the government must start from scratch.

"The process (of the creation of a job creation law) is starting again from scratch," he said at a virtual press conference, Thursday, November 25.

Said said the Court had given the government 2 years to revise the Job Creation Law. He said, as long as the law has not been revised, the government cannot take strategic and broad-impact policies.

"As long as it concerns strategic and broad-impact matters, they must be suspended by law. In other words, we can interpret that strategic and broad-impact labor regulations must return to the Manpower Law Number 13 of 2003," he said.

Furthermore, Said said strategic labor regulations that have a broad impact on workers' lives are related to workers' wages, work agreements and working hours. All these rules must be suspended until the job creation law is corrected within 2 years.

On the same occasion, KSPI President Said Iqbal appreciated the Constitutional Court's decision regarding the Job Creation Act. He believes that justice can still be upheld in an effort to fight for the basic rights of workers.

"KSPI and KSPSI AGN, which are represented by Riden Hatam Azis in the judicial review, we appreciate the Constitutional Court's decision," he said.

Furthermore, Said Iqbal emphasized that his party was ready to participate in the improvement of the Job Creation Law which was given 2 years by the Constitutional Court.

"We will be ready to follow as long as it does not violate the law and does not reduce the basic rights of workers," he explained.