Promoting and Realising Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining by Building Trust and Capacity in Industrial Relations - Indonesia

Source: ILO

The Projects covers Jakarta, West Java, East Java, North Sumatera, Riau and East Kalimantan. United States Department of Labor is the funding partner of the ILO. The project started in February 2001 and is scheduled to last until January 2003.

Indonesia has recently taken significant steps towards improving the legal protection of Indonesian workers, and recognising, especially in law, the freedom of workers and employers to establish and to join associations of their own choosing and bargain collectively. A legislative framework will shortly be in place aimed at promoting the rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining, regulating industrial relations among the social partners and extending the coverage of workers’ protection

However, the progress made so far in the political and legislative fields have left the social partners grappling with an array of new rights and obligations with which they are still unfamiliar. Both trade unions and employers’ organisations, as well as individual employers, are looking to an ill-equipped Ministry of Manpower to help them cope with the new industrial relations constellation.

The project will attempt to address the specific problems of Government, Employers and Workers in Indonesia with a particular focus on the development of sound industrial relations system. Within the Government, the specific target groups will be the labour officers working at the district, provincial and headquarters levels, charged with the management of labour administration which includes labour inspectors, employment service officers, conciliators and mediators. Other government target groups will be industrial judges and bipartite laymen and women. Other high officials in the Government, including the Minister of Manpower and Minister of Law and Legislation as well as the Head of the National Development Planning Boards also need to be targeted as appropriate. Legislators will also be targeted to keep up the momentum for labour law reform as well as to facilitate the full implementation of the labour laws and regulations.The project will also direct information campaigns to the public at large who, in the final analysis, are the ultimate beneficiaries of the project and its target group. A sound industrial relations system will attract foreign and private investors in general, boost development and raise the general standard of living of the public, thereby raising the profile of the Ministry of Manpower and their social partners.

Programme improvements will be sustained through the institution building components of the project which will consist of training, the promulgation of regulations, establishment of an industrial conflict resolution system, strengthening of employers’ and workers’ organizations, the development and dissemination of training manuals, and a public awareness campaign.

Measures to strengthen national know-how and institutional structures, training and other capacity-strengthening interventions will ensure that the project leaves behind a highly qualified pool of managers, trainers and advisors to continue the key activities beyond the project life. The review and modernisation of the curricula of the regular training institutions should ensure that the new generation of leaders, as well as the present ones, of the social partners are prepared for the realities of the 21st century. Emphasis will be placed on the training of trainers who will continue to impart training after the end of the project to maintain the institutional capacities of the social partners. Training manuals produced by the project will continue to be at the disposal of the trained trainers. Through the sensitization of the project activities of high government officials within and outside the Ministry of Manpower, the legislative and society at large, it is hoped that labour issues will be accorded increased national priority and will attract measures not only to maintain project-supplied equipments, but also to provide resources for institutional and human capacity building.

Moreover, all activities are placed within the context of ongoing programmes of each partner organization so they should, therefore, be able to continue after the end of the project. Using this participatory approach, all activities will be planned, operated and monitored through the active participation of the intended beneficiaries and local implementing partners. Programme design has been undertaken through close consultation with local partners. The establishment of the NPAC (National Project Advisory Committee) and LPACs (Local Project Advisory Committees) and other networking structures will strengthen local ownership and working relationships and coordination among a wide range of government and non-government organizations.

The focus on leadership enhancement for women in the trade unions will help project participants build up their own capabilities and support structures, empowering them to take responsibility for improving their own futures. This will help bring about changed conditions for women’s empowerment.

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