Part-time Working Contribution to Sustainable Development and

How It Is Implemented

Reggiannie Christy Natalia

Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Pelita Harapan University, MH. Thamrin Street, Tangerang, Indonesia

Keywords: Part-time Workers, OMNIBUS Law, Sustainable Development.

Abstract: In this fast growing business environment, flexibility in working arrangement is required to fill the need of

both employees and employers. Working for part-time jobs is not a new working arrangement in Indonesia

and so around the world. However the law governing this type of working arrangement was only officially

regulated in 2020 and at the same time has received a lot of pros and cons in the country as Indonesian labour

felt that the new working arrangement might suppress their rights. The purpose of this research is to examine

on how the part-time employment could contribute to the sustainable development goal no 8 from the United

Nations on Development Programme (UNDP). The method that will be used is normative legal research,

whereas the research will analyse the part-time working related laws in Indonesia and developed countries.

In conclusion, this research finds that the legalization of part-time employment law is needed in Indonesia

and would likely to contribute to the SDGs no 8. In the mean time, a comparison study from the UK and

Denmark implementation of part-time working arrangement would give a better insight of how Indonesia

should have treated and give protection to the part-time workers.

1 INTRODUCTION

Globalization has led to significant changes in

employment practice, whereas business entities are

required to fulfil more demand and adapt to the new

business trend. In result, working hour’s get longer,

some companies needed to work for 24hours or in

contrary only works for a few hours. In order to cope

up this new trend, various types of employment

contracts have been introduced. There are different

types of working arrangements, from part-time,

flexible, and fixed term working arrangements.

According to Louse Thawley Solicitors (Lowse,

2012), these types of work are classified as atypical

work.

The European Union Commission and the UK’s

government have identified part-time work as a way

to secure the inclusion of flexible labour market,

which would assist the disadvantaged groups of

people to obtain a better work life balance

(Hollinshead, 2003). Within decades the number of

part-time workers has increased dramatically within

the European (Hollinshead, 2003). The main reason

for the increased number of part-time workers was

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2488-0148

due to the supply and demand of both employees and

employers. This reflected the need of employers to

adapted to the market fluctuation and the need of

employee to obtain a more flexible job. Ergo, these

types of people who are likely not to be in full time

job arrangement are mothers or students.

As the result of the popularity of part-time

employment, the awareness to give a sufficient

protection to Part-time workers also emerged. Several

attempts have been made to ensure an equal and non-

discriminatory treatment to part-time workers. For an

instance, in 1997 the European Commission

established EU Directive for part-time worker. This

Directive was made to uphold the part time workers

right. Today, even though the part-time workers and

full-time workers not committed to the same working

hours and responsibility, however, they are both

having almost the same entitlements.

As can be seen that part time working

arrangement has been used and legalized globally,

however, Indonesia is not very flexible when it comes

to its employment law. Even thou in practice,

business entities have been using part-time working

arrangement to run their business. The special law for

336

Natalia, R.

Part-time Working Contribution to Sustainable Development and How It Is Implemented.

DOI: 10.5220/0010751700003112

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Emerging Issues in Humanity Studies and Social Sciences (ICE-HUMS 2021), pages 336-341

ISBN: 978-989-758-604-0

part-time employment was only officially in effect

after the legalization of OMNIBUS law on the 5

October 2020. OMNIBUS Law is Indonesian

National regulation that aims to ease investment

related regulations to attract investors. OMNIBUS

Law comprises of many related regulation that

affecting the employment law in Indonesia. The

legalization of this law requires an adjustment to the

Law no 13 year of 2003 relating Manpower.

As one of the most significant subsystem is the

economy. The main aim of the OMNIBUS law is to

boost the economic growth of the country. Strong

economy could bring prosper and help a country or

any person to have a decent livelihood. This is

consistent with the United Nations on Development

Programme (UNDP) that sets 17 sustainable

development goals (SDGs). One of the goals which is

the SDGs no 8 is “Decent Work and Economic

Growth”. It is estimated that at least 172 million

people worldwide are unemployed and 700 million

workers are living under extreme poverty. These are

only a view reasons why decent work and economic

growth of a country is very important. To tackle this

problem, the UNDP encouraging entrepreneurship

and job creation.

Employment and economic growth depends to

one another, thus in order to ensure economic growth

in Indonesia, one the strategies that is used by the

government is by creating some flexibility in working

arrangement through the OMNIBUS LAW. In the

end, the purpose of this research is to examine and

highlights on how the legalization of part-time

working arrangement could contribute to the SDGs

no 8 and how the UK and Denmark been treating their

part-time workers. At last, this research would have

brought some positive insight of part-time

employment to the eyes of both employee and

employers in Indonesia.

2 METHODS

In respond to the above issue, this research would

analyses on the law of Part-time working in Indonesia

through the OMNIBUS law and the part-time

working law in developed countries. Therefore this

research would addresses two research questions,

which are:

1) How would the part-time working

arrangement contributed to the sustainable

development number 8 in Indonesia?

2) How do the UK and Denmark as a Developed

countries implemented the part-time

employment?

In order to answer these two research questions,

the methodology that is used for this research is legal

normative method. The object of legal normative

method is legal norms, law, Acts and the Government

Regulations related to the topic. This method is aimed

to analyse the substance of the law by interpret,

intervene, systemize and evaluate the related

applicable law. At last, this method is hoped to find a

juridical settlement that occurs in the society (Irianto,

2013).

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Part-time Working Arrangement

and Sustainability

3.1.1 Part-time Workers in Omnibus Law

OMNIBUS Law is also known as Cipta Kerja Law

(Law number 11 year of 2020 regarding Cipta Kerja)

in Indonesia. This law is designed to create a better

investment climate, whereas this law is to solve

overlapping regulations issues in Indonesia.

OMNIBUS came from Latin language that means

“for everything” (Kurniawan, 2020). According to

Black’s Law Dictionary OMNIBUS Bill defines as:

“A single bill containing various distinct matters,

drafted in this way to force the executive either to

accept all the unrelated minor provisions or to veto

the major provision.”

In Indonesia OMNIBUS Law is acted as a single

Bill that regulates about investment related laws, such

as manpower, agriculture, forestry, fishery affairs and

so many more. It comprises of regulations from many

sectors that aim to ease investment which in result to

create more job opportunities by creating more

competitive environment. The implementation of this

law is by forcing the related law to amend or adjust it

self based on the new law and synchronize the cross

sectors laws that are related to each other.

When it comes to manpower law, the OMNIBUS

Law abolish several clauses from Indonesia’s

Manpower Law, added and revise a few clauses

regarding working hours, remuneration,

compensation, working contracts, social insurance of

workers and so many more. From this on, the

government has also released Government

regulations to implement the changes. In relation to

part-time employment, there are a few differences

after the legalization of the OMNIBUS Law. Before,

there is no specific regulation about working per

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337

hours or working part-time even in reality there are

some businesses that are hiring part-time workers.

The working arrangement for part-time workers was

the same as the Contract workers (Perjanjian Kerja

Untuk Waktu Tertentu/ PKWT), which stipulated in

Article 59 of Manpower law.

However, according to the Article 88B of

OMNIBUS Law relating Law number 13 year of

2003 relating Manpower, it rules that remuneration

shall be determined based on hour unit (working

hours) or production unit. Furthermore, the

implementation of this new clause is specifically

regulated under the Article 16 paragraph 2 of the

Government Regulation number 36 year of 2021

regarding Remuneration (PP). This PP rules that

remuneration can be paid per hours based on

agreement between the worker and employer. The

take home salary should not be less than the

remuneration formula which is one month salary (not

less then the minimum wage) divided to 126. As an

instance, if the regular monthly salary is IDR

3.000.000,- then the wage per hour equals to IDR

3.000.000,- : 126 equals to IDR 23.800,- per hour.

This is the very first time that the remuneration

formula for part-time employment is introduced,

which means that before this, there is no standard

wage or remuneration formula for working per hours.

The remuneration for part-time workers were not

clear and simply based on agreement between worker

and employee. This new arrangement received a lot

of critics from the labour union, however this new

arrangement is hoped to create more flexibility in

employment and legal certainty for part-time

workers.

So far the OMNIBUS law only touches the

remuneration standard for part-time employment and

yet there is no further regulation related to part-time

workers protections or leave and others in specific.

However, arguably many scholars assumed that the

part-time workers should enjoy the same entitlements

as the full-time workers, because most of the

regulation that is made for workers protections, social

insurance and others were simply using the terms of

workers in general or there is no distinction between

part-time workers, full-time workers and other type

of workers. As an example can be found from an

article written by Ketut Wiwit Triani and I Gede Putra

Ariana titled “Legal Protection for The Part Time

Workers When Working’s Accident Occurred”, this

research found that the part-time workers has the

same rights as the permanent workers when working

accident occurred.

As can be seen that legal certainty for part-time

employment has been recognized by the law in the

field of wage standardization, however the new law

still have not yet fully covered the protection for the

part-time workers in specific.

3.1.2 Part-time Working Arrangement and

Sustainability

Part-time employment is a form of labour market

flexibility that allows employees to choose the most

suitable form of employment relationship that is

needed for their business. Arguably, this type of

working arrangement could contributed to open more

job opportunities and increase economic growth,

which is consistent with the SDGs no 8 “Promotes

Decent Work and Economic Growth” by encouraging

entrepreneurship and job creation. Below are some of

the reasons why part-time working arrangement

could possibly support the SDGs no 8.

First of all, part-time employment can be

categorized as “The Accommodating Strategy”,

because the preference of part-time jobs is to meet the

preference of the workers. The reasons behind the

preference in employment rely on the age and gender

of the workers. This is due to the fact that there are

some categories of people that can only do or only

allowed to be in part-time work. This is not simply

about of the availability of the job, but rather because

of the situation that they are in. For example, women

with young children may prefer part-time

employment so that she can spend more time with her

kids. Students who want to work can only apply for

part-time work due to the assignments and classes

that they have to attend. Older people on the other

hand, may prefer part-time employment due to their

health problems (Allaart, 2007).

Therefore, by allowing this type of employment

strategy, the employers could accommodate many

different types of job opportunities for people who

cannot work for fulltime hours due to some

limitations. On the other hand, this also allows the

employers open up more job vacancies because the

part-time workers only work for a few hours per day

or per week. Furthermore, small business could also

afford hiring workers with lower salary due to shorter

working hours, which at last resulted in more job

creation and help small businesses to grow.

The second reason why part-time employment

could help economic growth is because of the

flexibility that it has. Based on the research that is

gathered by Emilia Herman in 2011 in European

Countries, it is found that five countries in Eastern

and Central EU (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary,

Romania), with negative flexibility in employment

were not managed to create more jobs in the 2000-

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2010 periods and the economic growth of the

countries were negative as well (Herman, 2011). In

contrary, ten countries of the EU (Spain, Greece,

Luxemburg, Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus,

Slovakia, Czech Republic and Slovenia) that

implemented flexibility in employment show a high

economic growth (between 2.35% in Spain and

4.48%), accompanied by employment growth. The

economic growth in each country differs from one

another, but all the ten countries show significant

economic growth due to the flexibility in employment

(Herman, 2011). However the finding of the research

suggested that even though flexibility in employment

is essential to trigger economic growth but the

flexibility ratio should be kept low and positive at the

level of +0.37. Flexibility in labour market is needed

but the ratio should be kept low compare to the full

time working arrangement. The mixture of this shall

lead to more job creation and economic growth.

The last reason is because the use of part-time

employment could enhance workers productivity.

International Labour Organization’s Global

Employment Agenda addresses two main issues to

obtain long-term sustainable growth and to improve

living standard, which are higher productivity and job

creation. Labour productivity has been and will

remain as one of the most difficult problems in

economic growth. In relation with part-time

employment, a research on part-time employment

productivity found that a larger part-time

employment shares leads to greater productivity on

service sectors. The research found that firms with

large share of part-time workers shows more

productivity that the full-time employment. This is

due to the fact that part-time employment works for

fewer hours per day and fewer days per week, which

resulted in efficiency, and more productivity when

this type of employment is used in service sectors

(Nelen, 2011).

In conclusion the OMNIBUS law has legalised

the use of part-time employment in Indonesia by

regulating about the remuneration based on hours

unit. Even though this is the only specific regulation

relating part-time working arrangement but it will

create flexibility in labour market, enhance

productivity, allow workers and employers to pick on

the most suitable working arrangement, which is

might likely to boost job creation and economic

growth that is in consistent with the sustainable

development number 8 by the UNDP.

3.2 Part-time Employment in

Developed Countries

3.2.1 Part-time Employment in the UK

UK employment law is both statutory and decisional

(International Banking Finance [IBF], 2008). The UK

employment law indicated as a statutory basis

because it is manly based on the common law and

statues. It is as well decisional, because the law is

flexible. The employer is allowed to hire the

employee in any types of working arrangement as

long as there is a mutual agreement, followed with

legal procedure. The UK employment law seems to

be rigid, in terms of the statutory requirements on the

treatment and working conditions for the worker. On

the other hand, the law is flexible, in terms of the

types of working arrangement.

The flexibility in the working arrangement seems

to be benefiting both employer and employee,

whereas, they could conduct an employment

relationship in a way that is suitable for both parties.

Meanwhile, the flexibility could also led to

degradation entitlements or to an exploitation of

workers. Firstly, the workers might not aware of their

rights and have a lower bargaining power, which

might lead to unbalanced agreement. Secondly, the

types of working arrangement that has been agreed

might not be regulated by the UK, and therefore, the

employer might easily escape from his responsibility.

Notwithstanding, the UK flexible employment

model still could be an excellent employment

relationship as long as both parties are aware of their

rights and duties or having the same level of

bargaining power. In addition, the role of the statutory

provisions of the UK employment law is a perfect

combination, since a certain standard should be in

place.

The distinction of employment relationship is

essential, because only the employees can be

qualified for the employment protection and the

Health and Safety Act 1976 such us redundancy

payment, unfair dismissal and others (Painter, 2012).

However, both employee and workers can enjoy the

discrimination and equal pay legislation.

Bredgard, Larsen, Madsen and Rasmusen define

part-time worker also known as atypical worker as a

non-standard types of work deviating from the full

time work employment relationship (Bredgaard,

2009). The definition of atypical work simply

classified itself as any types of employment

relationship other than the full time arrangement. In

specific, part time workers, define as a worker who

work for less hours than the full time worker (Lowse,

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339

2012), whilst if within the same work place, the full

time workers are working for 40 hours per week, the

workers who worked less than that would be

identified as a part time workers.

In terms of the supply and demand of the part-time

job, this working arrangement would likely to be an

excellent option for small or new businesses, due to

the cost and flexibility. It is easier to find a part-time

worker in a restaurant, retail or another small business

rather than for it to be found in a well established

company. It appears that, the part-time workers in the

UK would likely to do a low skilled job rather than to

the highly educated people. This might likely

because, a well established company would prefer to

employ an employee who could be fully responsible

with the day to day work, which a part time worker

might not able to do.

Based on the data gathered from the UK

government, part time workers’ rights are protected

and shall not being treated less favourably than the

full time workers. Part time workers enjoy the same

treatment as the full-time workers for the pay rates,

pension opportunities and benefit, holidays, training

and career development, selection for promotion and

transfer or for redundancy and opportunities for

career breaks.

The people who are working under full time

arrangement has their right under the Employment

Act 1996 to amend their work arrangement to part

time job, as long as it comes with a legitimate reason

under the 1996 Act. This act has opened an

opportunity for the full time employee to amend the

working arrangement to part time work, however, this

is only exist for the full time workers who wants to

change their working arrangement.

3.2.2 Part-time Employment in Denmark

Denmark employment law is indicated as the most

flexible employment law models around European

countries. Denmark use the term of Flexicurity to

describe its employment law. Flexicurity stands for

flexibility and security. The flexibility lied on the low

level of protection for employees (Bredgaard, 2009).

Denmark has a very limited statutory provision with

regards to the employees’ minimum wage or working

condition (Graphic, 2009). The minimum wage and

working condition will be determined by the

collective bargaining made between the trade union

and the employer.

The security of Denmark’s employment system

can be found in the in the unemployment benefit

system. Denmark has a policy that serves to enhance

the qualification and motivate the individual that lost

his job or have problems to find a new job. This

system is made to cope up with the impact of

flexibility of Denmark’s labour market.

It can be seen that, the government is trying to

balance within the flexibility and the security of

Denmark labour market. The EU Commission

indicates flexibility as a good employment law

system. Arguably, when a strict rules for hiring and

dismissing standard worker is in place, the employers

would more likely to employ atypical worker.

Denmark employment law, seems to be designed to

attract the employer to resort full time workers rather

than the atypical workers.

In Denmark, part time work is simply considered

as a standard employment relationship with a shorter

hour. When the workers work for more than eight

hours per week, the worker would be automatically

protected under the White collar Act, which provides

minimum rights for the part-time workers. The

minimum rights cover long-term sickness absence,

denunciation clause, freedom of assembly and others

(Hansen, 2010). The conditions under the act shall not

be derogated, unless the agreement provides higher

conditions than what is covered by the act.

It appears that in relation to the protection of the

part-time workers, Denmark relies more in to the law

rather than the collective agreement. This is to ensure

that the part-time workers’ will not be treated less

favourable than the full-time workers. It seems to be

an excellent way of upholding the rights of the part-

time workers in Denmark, due to the fewer amounts

of part-time workers in Denmark.

In conclusion, the UK and Demark as developed

countries have different employment law style.

However, both countries have legalised part-time

employment and treated part-time workers not less

favourable than the full-time workers, in terms of the

pay rates, pension opportunities and benefit, holidays,

training and career development, selection for

promotion and transfer or for redundancy and

opportunities for career breaks. The only difference

between the part-time workers and full-time workers

relies on the working hours.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Part-time working arrangement has been widely used

all over the world. This working arrangement allows

flexibility in labour market. In practice, some of

Indonesian businesses have been using this type of

employment but the regulation only recently been

introduced through the OMNIBUS Law.

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The legalization of part-time employment in

Indonesia is only stipulated on the standard

remuneration or formula that should be used to

calculate the part-time workers wage. This type of

employment would likely to create flexibility in

Indonesia’s labour market, enhance productivity,

allow workers and employers to pick on the most

suitable working arrangement, which is might likely

to boost job creation and economic growth that is in

consistent with the sustainable development number

8 by the UNDP.

On the other hand, developed countries like the

UK and Denmark have legalised part-time

employment for quite some time. These two countries

treated part-time workers not less favourable than the

full-time workers. The equal treatment can be seen

from the pay rates, pension opportunities and benefit,

holidays, training and career development, selection

for promotion and transfer or for redundancy and

opportunities for career breaks. The only difference

between the part-time and full-time workers relies on

the working hours.

Form the comparison study gathered from the

developed countries, this research would suggest

Indonesia to put more attention for the well being of

the part-time workers. This can be done by

specifically regulates about the protection of the part-

time workers during work, pension scheme, social

insurance and others. By doing so, it is hoped that

both workers and employers would be benefited from

this working arrangement and at last contributed to

the sustainable development goals number 8 for the

country.

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