Labor Regulations and Industrial Relations in Indonesia

Personnel management and incentive systems help firms establish a comparative advantage. Pay scales and hiring, firing and promotion decisions are central to competitive strategy. Ideally, labor regulations should facilitate voluntary agreements between employers and workers, helping reduce transaction costs. Since the mid-1980s, deregulation has proceeded rapidly in Indonesia. Employment opportunities, the capacity to generate income, and the opportunity to negotiate better working conditions have all expanded. Still, many Indonesians have voiced concern that workers have not shared enough in the benefits of economic development. Many hold the view that increasing the minimum wage would bring the bottom wages up and reduce wage differentials. Additionally, international agencies such as the International Labour Organisation and representatives of the U.S. government have criticized Indonesia for violations of labor standards. In response, the Indonesian government increased workers' statutory rights and removed obstacles to collective bargaining. Real minimum wages doubled between 1988 and 1995. Enforcement of regulations toughened. While in earlier periods statutory rights applied to a minority in the public sector, the expansion of manufacturing employment has broadened the coverage of these statutes, requiring the Ministry of Manpower to perform the nearly impossible task of enforcing them. Now the government should close the gap between statutory rights and voluntarily agreed-on working conditions. This means correcting the legal standards and reducing government intervention in labor disputes. Current labor regulations in Indonesia inhibit constructive discourse between workers and employers in three areas: dismissals, dispute resolution mechanisms, and contributions to social security. More appropriate legislative action, which also ...