Freedom of Association Implementation through Legal Protection for Worker Union in Response to Anti-Union Actions by Employers

Abstract

Indonesian labors have rights, either individually or collectively, to associate and to establish organizations. Union is one form of protection and enforcement of workers’ normative rights, on conditions that the rights are in line with, and does not conflict with, laws and regulations. The negative attitudes and perceptions of company management towards workers’ unions and legal norms still restrict the space for the unions. The situation enables the occurrence of anti-union actions by employers. It becomes increasingly difficult to stop because workers’ unions are often trapped by fanaticism that makes them difficult to unite perceptions regarding anti-union actions. This study aims to study the implementation of labor union legal protection by the government facing anti-union actions by employers. The study employed normative juridical, starting with a description of positive laws related to the problem under study. Subsequently, an analysis was carried out by using relevant legal concepts and theories, synchronizing regulations, examining applicable laws in concrete and legal principles as secondary data support. The primary data was obtained through interviews. The results show that the implementation of legal protection for labor unions could not be carried out according to the purpose of the regulation. Therefore, law enforcement on the anti-union actions could not be performed optimally. The National Police, labor inspectors, and civil servants with criminal investigator power were unable to handle anti-union actions. Civil Servants with criminal investigator power in the field of workforce possesses authority based on the law to conduct investigations but mostly, they have not been able to conduct the duty properly. The evidence is the low number of employers that are processed legally based on report to the court.