The Expansion of The Scope of Employment Crimes the Legal Protection of Workers in Indonesia

Abstract

The protection of the basic rights of workers provided in ‘Law No. 13 of 2003 on Employment’ in Indonesia, if violated shall be punished with the appropriate criminal sanctions and justice. Problematically, there are only rare cases of employment crimes that have been handled by the law of enforcement, let alone reach up to the level of criminal courts. Many cases of employment crimes are not investigated by the Department of Manpower for various reasons. Reports of employment crimes are rejected by the police, as well as by various matters not stipulated in Law No. 13 of 2003 on Employment. This hinders the enforcement of workers’ protection laws in Indonesia, as envisaged by the Law No. 13 of 2003 on Employment. Employment laws (arbeids-recht) in essence, whether viewed both historically or theleologically, is to protect the fundamental rights of workers, therefore the factors inhibiting law enforcement of employment crimes must be minimised or even eliminated so that the values of protecting the basic rightsof workers are not sacrificed by such inhibitory factors.