Indonesian parliamentary body okays Jokowi’s presidential decree on jobs

JAKARTA - An Indonesian parliamentary body on Wednesday approved President Joko Widodo’s controversial emergency regulation on job creation, lawmakers said, paving the way for its passage into law at a plenary session.

The President, popularly known by his nickname Jokowi,

issued the emergency decree in late 2022

to replace the Jobs Creation law, arguing that ongoing global economic uncertainty gave him the legal basis to exercise executive authority. Once approved by Parliament, the decree will become a permanent law.

Originally passed in 2020, the jobs law revised more than 70 other laws and was lauded by foreign investors for streamlining business rules in South-east Asia’s largest economy. But critics saw it as hurting labour rights and eroding environmental protection.

But the Constitutional Court ruled in 2021 that the law was flawed due to inadequate public consultation and ordered a renewed debate process in Parliament within two years.

Some legal experts have criticised Mr Widodo’s emergency decree as a ploy to bypass a proper debate and not comply with the court order.

Trade unions have

held several relatively small protests

against the decree. In January, a group of Indonesians asked the Constitutional Court to

carry out a judicial review of the decree.

But Parliament’s Legislative Body deputy chair Abdul Wahid said the routine procedure would take too long and there was an “urgent need to resolve legal issues quickly”.

It was not immediately clear when Parliament would conduct the plenary vote on Mr Widodo’s emergency regulation. His coalition controls more than 80 per cent of seats in Parliament.

Lawmakers typically follow the endorsement of the Legislative Body. REUTERS