The protection of employment relationship in Indonesia

Fundamentally, an employment relationship is an economic relationship. Nevertheless, due to the weaker position of worker than employers, thus, many parties note the importance of government intervention to protect workers in the form of regulation-making in order that the employment relationship can be fair. Therefore, this study specifically analyzes how the Indonesian labor law regulates the employment relationship to ensure that workers are protected from solely economic interests and at the same time workers can function well in the company's business operations. By using statute approach, the analysis conclude that the Indonesian labor law has set minimum and maximum requirements in the making of employment contract and substantive and procedural requirements in the dismissal exercise. For instance, the dismissal exercise must be accompanied by a fair reason. This principle is in line with the slogan 'labor is not a commodity' that is embodied in the ILO Declaration of Philadelphia 1944 and the principle of 'just cause dismissal' in the ILO Convention No. 158.