Is Indonesian Labor Law Already Good? This is the Research

Indonesian labor laws do not fully guarantee worker protection.

This is evident from the Labour Rights Index (LRI) report compiled by the WageIndicator Foundation and the Centre for Labour Research (CLR).

WageIndicator and CLR compiled the LRI based on the existence or absence of laws protecting 46 components of workers' rights.

These components are grouped into 10 major indicators, namely:

1. Fair wages;
2. Decent working hours;
3. Employment security;
4. Family responsibilities leave/allowance;
5. Maternity leave/allowance;
6. Safe work;
7. Social security;
8. Fair treatment at work;
9. Child and forced labour protection; and
10. Trade union rights.

The research was conducted by compiling labor laws in effect in 135 countries as of January 1, 2022.

The results were then formulated into an index score on a scale of 0–100. The higher the score, the better a country's labor laws are assumed to be and the broader the protection afforded to workers' rights.

In 2022, Indonesia received an LRI score of 60.5 out of 100, falling into the "Limited Access to Decent Work" category.

When broken down by indicator, in 2022 Indonesia achieved a perfect score in occupational safety and health protection laws (score 100), and child and forced labor protection laws (score 100).

Indonesian law was also considered quite good in terms of regulating decent working hours (score 80), and employment contracts (score 80).

However, Indonesian legal protection remains limited in terms of fair wages (score 60), social security (score 60), and fair treatment at work (score 60).

Indonesia was also considered not to provide adequate protection for maternity rights (score 40), family responsibility rights (score 25), and trade unions (score 0).

Based on LRI data, until January 1, 2022, Indonesia did not have laws protecting trade union rights to demonstrate.

It should be noted that this index score only reflects the existence or absence of labor laws guaranteeing these rights, without considering the implementation of the law or the actual conditions of workers in the field.