IUF-affiliated national federations FSPM an FSBMM joined other unions in Indonesia affiliated to Global Union Federations to stop the Omnibus bill being passed into law this week. The comprehensive set of laws in the Omnibus bill will weaken environmental and social protection, undermine livelihoods and access to essential public utilities, and put workers’ rights and job security at risk.
The Omnibus bill will amend 79 laws and 1,244 articles seen as obstacles to foreign investment and reorganize them into 11 clusters. Both the process of legislating the Omnibus law and the diminished protection of livelihoods, employment and the environment, violate a range of international human rights conventions including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and several International Labour Conventions and Recommendations.
The repeal of labour laws to allow increased outsourcing across all industries and the deregulated use of short-term contracts will lead to a rise in precarious employment and diminished access to rights for millions of workers. As IUF has argued previously in its submission to the UN, precarious work undermines human rights and effectively denies an even greater number of workers the right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining guaranteed under International Labour Conventions No.87 and No.98.
The unions also criticized the move to quickly pass the Omnibus law during an accelerating pandemic, effectively preventing public participation.
The original press statement of the five unions in Indonesian is available here.