JAKARTA (ILO News): The International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with the Supreme Court of Indonesia, the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) and the Judicial Training Centre are working in partnership to develop a training programme for newly appointed judges to the Industrial Relations Court (IRC). This week a training of trainers on the new curriculum, particularly components relating to international labour standards, is being conducted from May 7th-11th 2012.

The training of trainers is conducted based on the request from the Training and Education Centre of the Supreme Court, aimed to strengthen its competency-based training curriculum for industrial relations court judges. The curriculum will also strengthen judges’ understanding of the application of international labour standards in Indonesia as part of the application of the Law No. 2 of 2004 on Industrial Relations Disputes Settlement. The curriculum is now in the final stages of development and will be incorporated into the Supreme Court’s training program for judges appointed to the IRC shortly.

Ms Karen Curtis, Deputy Director for International Labour Standards, is involved in the training programme to equip judges with knowledge on international labour standards on freedom of association and collective bargaining. Justice Alan Boulton, Senior Deputy Director for Fair Work Australia (and former Director of the ILO Jakarta Office) also attended the training programme as a resource person.

The Industrial Relations Disputes Settlement Law introduced five labour dispute settlement mechanisms, namely bipartite settlement, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and settlement by an Industrial Relations Court. The new IRC, along with other dispute resolution mechanisms, came into operation in early 2006, replacing a system of district and regional industrial disputes settlement committees (P4D/P), which unions and employers had often criticized as being costly, exceedingly time-consuming and prone to corruption.

One of the major changes to the industrial dispute settlement system is that Law No. 2 of 2004 shifted the jurisdiction over industrial relations disputes from the Ministry Manpower and Transmigration to the Supreme Court. The shift had caused a major challenge and concern: the level of competency and professionalism of IRC. The main actors in industrial relations, such as the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) and unions, have also shared similar concerns, including the weak capacity of ad hoc judges in understanding and applying substantive law, legal logic and court procedures.

For further information please contact:

Miranda Fajerman
Programme Officer
Tel.: +6221 391 3112 ext. 167
Email

Gita Lingga
Communications Officer
Tel.: +6221 391 3112 ext. 115
Email