Constitutional Court Orders Government to Amend Omnibus Law

TheIndonesia.id - The Constitutional Court ordered the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) and the government to revise the Omnibus Law of Job Creation within the next two years. If it is not corrected, the law is declared invalid.

The verdict was read by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman through the YouTube channel of the Indonesian Constitutional Court, Thursday, November 25, 2021. The Constitutional Court stated that Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation is contrary to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

Anwar Usman also stated that the Employment Creation Act is still valid until the legislators, namely the government and the DPR, revise the Law per the grace period as determined in the Court decision. If the legislators do not make improvements within that period, the Job Creation Law becomes permanently unconstitutional and all laws revised by the Job Creation Act are deemed to be re-applicable.

"If within two years the legislators are unable to complete the revision of [the Job Creation Law], the law or articles or the material content of the law that has been revoked or amended by the Job Creation Act must be declared valid again," said Anwar.

In addition, the government is also prohibited from making new implementing regulations derived from the Job Creation Law for the next two years. "Declaring to suspend all actions or policies that are strategic in nature and have a broad impact, and it is also not justified to issue new implementers related to Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation," said Anwar.

There have been criticisms of its purpose and design since the drafting of the law which is often dubbed as the 'Omnibus Law'. Critics judged it "too capitalistic and neoliberalistic" as well as "lack of transparency and lack of involvement of workers and civil society."

The government's efforts to streamline regulations to simplify investment permits and improve people's welfare are considered counterproductive by economic observers.

A series of student demonstrations against the Omnibus Law also took place in several areas.

The decision was taken after a judicial review submitted by six community groups including Migrant Care and the Minangkabau Indigenous Community. Viktor Santosa Tandiasa, the Plaintiff's attorney, considered this to be a momentum to cancel the Copyright Act.

"So here it means that fellow workers and disadvantaged groups can fight again in the DPR to reject and thwart the birth of the Job Creation Law on a second chance," Viktor told reporters at the Constitutional Court Building, Central Jakarta, Thursday.

In addition, with the Constitutional Court's decision, said Viktor, automatically canceling all policies of the Copyright Act.

"The most important thing is that strategic policies must be suspended. So when there are policies that harm workers who use the Job Creation Law, then everything should automatically be null and void because the Constitutional Court has suspended them," he said.

He also considers that the decision will invalidate all regulations of the Ministry of Manpower from the Ciptaker Law regarding labor.