JAKARTA - As one of the Indonesian tripartite delegates who attended the 113th International Employment Conference (ILC) at Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, the Indonesian Employers' Association (APINDO) expressed its hope for the results of the ILC which began to be held some time ago.
In the 113th ILC plenary session, APINDO's Head of Manpower Bob Azam said that global conditions are still challenging, ranging from trade uncertainty to exchange rate pressure and rising domestic production costs.
Thus, this has an impact on labor-intensive sectors that are forced to reduce labor. Therefore, Bob hopes that the conference can produce adaptive and realistic global regulations.
"The principle of decent work on the platform must be carefully designed so as not to hinder flexibility and innovation, two key elements of job creation in the digital era. The business world hopes that ILO will produce instruments that protect the workforce without imposing conventional work models," said Bob in his statement, Sunday, June 29.
This year, the ILO Standards Determination Committee began its first discussion of "decent work in platform-based economics".
All tripartite parties, explained Bob, agreed on the importance of comprehensive protection for both workers and the sustainability of the platform ecosystem, including MSMEs.
"Therefore, it was agreed on a principle-based approach so that the resulting instruments were flexible and could be adjusted to the national context of each country," he explained.
During the discussion, the Committee needed two full days to determine the type of instrument to be used. The majority of European countries, Latin America, and Africa support a binding Convention because it adapts to the employment system in their country.
Meanwhile, countries with the largest population of platform workers such as China, the US, India, Switzerland, and Japan encourage flexible recommendations and can be adapted to a national context where the majority of platform workers in the world are self-employing and the importance of maintaining stability so as not to kill MSMEs which are highly dependent on the digital economy.
Although it was finally decided that the instruments to be prepared were in the form of a convention, the discussion of the new substance covered around 15 percent and had not yet produced the final agreement.
"This shows the complexity of issues and the need for caution so that instruments do not hinder the growth of the digital economy and continue to respect the legal and labor system in each country," he explained.
During the two weeks of discussion, it was agreed that the definition of platform workers includes service providers on platforms both as workers in employment, those who are self-employed, as well as other special categories, depending on the national context of their respective countries.
There is no automatic assumption that all platform workers should be considered as workers in employment. The instrument formulated is also obliged to respect the labor law system and business law in each country.
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The scope of the platform discussed is also wide. Not only location-based ones such as transportation and delivery, but also online-based digital platforms such as telehealth, digital tourism, edutech, freelancers, to creative jobs.
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