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Opponents say the new law allows contractors to stay in place for life and weakens environmental protections.
Indonesian workers have launched protests in several cities to oppose the passage of a controversial new jobs law that the government says is vital to attracting investment, but which critics consider too pro-business.
Parliament passed President Joko Widodo’s “blanket” job creation bill on Monday night, which revised more than 70 existing laws to accelerate economic reform and improve the investment climate in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Still, parliament voted on the bill earlier than expected and ahead of a nationwide strike that begins Tuesday that unions hope to involve two million workers.
“The law will definitely affect the status of our employment,” Anwar Sanusi, a member of the FSPMI union in the western Jakarta city of Tangerang, said by phone.
Sanusi said the bill would mean contract workers and contract workers will stay on site for life, adding that 400 workers on the morning shift had stopped working.
The new law eliminates the maximum length of three-year contracts and cuts severance pay, provisions that the government said were intended to promote formal hiring.
‘False ruinous election’
Critics also said the measure reduces environmental protections.
Environmental campaign group Mighty Earth said: “Elements of the new law will worsen deforestation and land rights abuses and reverse recent successes in reducing forest loss.”
“The Indonesian parliament made a ruinous and false choice between environmental sustainability and economic growth by effectively legitimizing uncontrolled deforestation as an engine for the so-called pro-investment job creation policy,” said Phelim Kine, senior director of campaigns at Mighty. Earth in a statement sent. to Al Jazeera.
Nining Elitos, president of labor group KASBI, said in a text message that “tens of thousands of people had stood in front of factories in many places.”
His claim could not be immediately verified and it was unclear if workers would be able to protest in front of the parliament building in Jakarta as planned, as police tried to block protesters for containing the coronavirus. Usman Hamid of Amnesty International Indonesia said that this “catastrophic law … will damage workers’ wallets, job security and their human rights in general.”
But Trimegah Securities economist Fakhrul Fulvian said passage of the bill helped local markets with Jakarta’s main stock index up 1.31 percent and the rupee up 1.28 percent against the dollar. American.
He said banks and export-oriented industries should benefit, while the consumer and retail sectors may come under pressure as workers can increase savings to offset changes in labor rules.
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