Baleg Agrees To The Ciptaker Bill Taken To The DPR Plenary Session, Democrats And PKS Refuse

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Working Meeting of the Legislation Body (Baleg) of the DPR RI together with the government and DPD RI on Saturday, October 3 approved the Work Creation Omnibus Law Bill (RUU Ciptaker) to be brought at the DPR Plenary Session to be approved into law (UU).

"Can the Ciptaker Bill be approved to be brought to Level II?" said Chairman of the Baleg DPR RI Supratman Andi Agtas at the Baleg Meeting at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, reported by Antara, Saturday, October 3.

All members of the DPR Baleg together with the government and DPD RI agreed.

He explained, in the view of the mini-factions conveyed by representatives of the factions, there were two factions that rejected the approval of the Ciptaker Bill, namely the Democrat Party and the PKS Faction.

"There are seven factions accepting and two rejecting, and according to the expectations of the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs that communication remains open until before the DPR Plenary Meeting," he said.

Vice Chairman of Baleg DPR RI Willy Aditya said, the Bill on Job Creation was a bill proposed by the President and was a Priority Bill for 2020 in the 2020 National Legislation Program.

According to him, the Ciptaker Bill is the first bill in which each discussion is carried out openly and transparently which is broadcast on Parliament TV and DPR social media as a commitment to parliamentary reform.

Willy said there were several main points that surfaced and agreed upon in the Work Creation Bill at the Working Committee Meeting (Panja), among others, first, the arrangement and improvement of the business licensing system based on the presidential system of government as adopted in the 1945 NRI Constitution.

"Second, local governments participate in realizing the success of work creation. Therefore, regional government authority is maintained in accordance with the principle of regional autonomy within the framework of the Republic of Indonesia. The implementation of regional government authority is in accordance with the NSPK established by the central government," he said.

Third, according to him, the concept of "Risk Based Approach" (RBA) becomes the basis and animates the Job Creation Bill and an electronic-based business licensing system. Fourth, the policy of ease of doing business, for all business actors, from MSMEs, cooperatives to large businesses.

"Strengthening of UMKM and cooperative institutions through various facilities and business facilities. Fifth, the policy of integrating one national map, covering land and sea areas," he said.

Sixth, according to him, regulations regarding protection and legal certainty for workers / laborers in the context of realizing public welfare. Seventh, regulating policies regarding the ease of doing business in the Economic Zone, implementing central government investment and national strategic projects, as well as government administration services to facilitate bureaucratic procedures in the context of work creation.

The meeting also physically attended the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, the Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna H Laoly, and the Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah.

Rejection of the PKS Faction

The Prosperous Justice Party (FPKS) of the DPR RI rejected the stipulation of the Omnibus Law Draft at the first level decision making on the results of the discussion of the Bill on Job Creation by the DPR RI Legislation Body (Baleg) on Saturday night.

"Based on various considerations we conveyed, the PKS faction rejected the Job Creation Bill to be enacted as a Law," said DPR RI Baleg member FPKS Ledia Hanifa Amaliah.

According to him, FPKS realizes that the regulatory substance contained in the Ciptaker Bill has broad implications for state and governance practices in Indonesia.

Therefore, he considered that a deep consideration was needed whether the formal and material aspects of the law were in line with the mutually agreed corridor of the national law politics.

Ledia explained that there were several records from the FPKS DPR RI related to the Ciptaker Bill, first FPKS views that the discussion of the bill during the COVID-19 pandemic caused limited access and public participation in providing input, corrections and improvements to the Job Creation Bill.

"Second, the large amount of material contained in this bill should be addressed with care and caution. The discussion on DIM which is not coherent in a short period of time causes an inoptio- nality in the discussion. Even though this law will have a wide impact on many people, for this nation," he said.

Third, according to Ledia, FPKS views the Job Creation Bill as not accurate in reading the situation, inaccurate in diagnosis, and inadequate in preparing "recipes" even though what is often mentioned is a matter of investment.

He assessed that in reality the problems to be regulated in the Omnibus Law are not the main problems that have been a barrier to investment, for example the inaccuracy is the formulation of severance pay which is not based on a comprehensive analysis.

"Just looking at the aspect of entrepreneur powerlessness without looking at the average length of service of the laid off workers so that the maximum value of severance pay should not be a scourge for employers," he said.

Fourth, according to him, in substance a number of provisions in the bill still contain substances that are contrary to the politics of national law agreed upon after the constitutional amendment.

He explained that the provisions rejected in the Ciptaker Bill were a threat to state sovereignty by providing facilities to foreign parties.

"This includes threats to our food sovereignty. The Job Creation Bill contains regulatory substances that have the potential to cause harm to workers or laborers through amendments to several provisions that are more beneficial to employers. Especially in regulating work contracts, wages and severance pay," he said.

He assessed that the Ciptaker Bill contains regulations that have the potential to cause damage to environmental sustainability, for example in article 37 of the Job Creation Bill related to changes to the Forestry Law, the provision of a minimum area of 30 percent for the function of forest areas from Watershed Areas (DAS) to be deleted.

According to him, the bill also provides enormous powers to the government but this authority is not matched by creating a system of supervision and control over administrative law enforcement.

"If the government intends to facilitate licensing, the system for imposing sanctions should be tighter by developing a modern administrative justice system," he said.

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Democrats Reject

Member of the Legislation Body (Baleg) of the DPR RI Hinca Pandjaitan said that his faction rejected the Work Creation Omnibus Law Bill (RUU Ciptaker) being approved as a law because there were many things that had to be discussed in depth and comprehensively.

"The Democrat Faction sees that there is no need to rush in discussing the Job Creation Bill, and we suggest that a more complete discussion and involving various interested stakeholders is carried out," said Hinca at the Baleg Working Meeting with the government and DPD RI.

Hinca explained that there were three critical notes from the F-Democrats regarding the Ciptaker Bill; First, there are injustices in the workforce, such as the rule of the principle of no work no pay by employers because wages are paid based on hourly work time units.

According to him, the regulation regarding workers' right to rest for two days a week was also removed because 40 hours in a week were returned in the work agreement.

"This bill also contains an easy hiring but easy firing system, for example, the drastically relaxed provisions regarding contract workers and outsourcing also make it difficult for workers to obtain certainty about their rights to become permanent workers," he said.

Second, according to him, related to the environmental and land sector, the Ciptaker Bill has the potential to have an alarming impact on the land sector because it legalizes land grabbing as much and as easily as possible for Government Priority Projects and National Strategic Projects whose implementation can be submitted to the private sector.

In terms of environmental matters, according to him, the bill provides facilities for land clearing for companies in various sectors and land acquisition for less than five hectares.

"Whereas for densely populated urban areas such as Jakarta, Surabaya and others, the area of five hectares can be occupied by hundreds of family heads. As a result of this arrangement, forced evictions on a small scale are very easy for local governments to do," he said.

The third note according to Hinca, related to the centralization of regulations from the regions to the center, the faction highlighted that giving too much authority to the central government would make it superior to the legislature, judiciary and regional governments.

Whereas according to him, the purpose of the Ciptaker Bill is to streamline the bureaucracy, but the latest regulation will actually complicate the bureaucratic process because there is no legal certainty and clarity in terms of business licensing.

"We also assess that the process of discussing crucial points in the Ciptaker Bill is not transparent and accountable. This is because it does not involve many elements of society, workers and civil society networks," he said.

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