Legal Protection for Contract Workers Post Changes to Labor Laws

Abstract

The employment relationship is a relationship that occurs between workers and employers who bind themselves to each other through work agreements. The work agreement is the basis for the occurrence of a work relationship, whether it is carried out for a certain time or an unspecified time. Based on the provisions of Article 59 paragraph (4) of Law Number 13 of 2003 concerning Manpower, a work agreement for a certain time can only be implemented for a maximum of 3 years, and after that the status of an employment relationship by law becomes a work agreement for an indefinite time. The presence of the Job Creation Law changed the provisions of article 59 paragraph (4) of the Manpower Law which do not limit the timeframe for implementing contract work agreements. It is feared that the change in regulation will give workers the status of contract workers for life. The methodology used in this research is normative juridical research, using statutory and conceptual approaches. The purpose of this research is to look at the differences in legal protection for contract workers before and after the amendment to Article 59 paragraph (4) of Law Number 13 of 2003 concerning Manpower. After looking at the differences in legal protection for contract workers, do these changes provide better legal protection for normative rights for contract workers? The results of the study show that changes to the unlimited term of contract workers provide legal protection for the normative rights of contract workers which are not good, so it is necessary to conduct a judicial review to the Constitutional Court as a form of repressive legal protection for all levels of society, especially contract workers.