Court wants tweaks to Indonesia's jobs law

JAKARTA • An Indonesian court ordered President Joko Widodo to amend parts of his omnibus law, which was meant to create jobs by overhauling investment rules.

The changes must be done within two years, or the law would be deemed unconstitutional, said the Constitutional Court's chief judge Anwar Usman after yesterday's ruling.

The panel of judges rejected calls for the entire law to be cancelled and allowed the law to remain in force until the revisions are made.

It has been dogged by controversy since it was first announced in 2019, with workers and investors raising concerns over labour rights and environmental protection.

Mr Widodo is banking on the law to cut red tape and bring in investments that would create jobs.

The court's ruling, which cannot be appealed, detailed some late changes made in the final omnibus law from a version that was approved in Parliament, as well as mistakes in the law's citations of existing regulations that it was meant to supersede.

The verdict deemed the job creation law as "legally defective" as its approval did not follow the proper process. The court will let the government take two years to address the issues to ensure legal certainty.

BLOOMBERG

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 26, 2021, with the headline Court wants tweaks to Indonesia's jobs law. Subscribe