Campus Workers' Union Demands on National Education Day Commemoration 2026

The Serikat Pekerja Kampus (SPK) has presented reflections on the commemoration of National Education Day (Hardiknas) 2026. One key issue highlighted by SPK is the welfare of lecturers, who live in economic uncertainty and high vulnerability.

SPK Chairman Dhia Al Uyun stated that her organisation is committed to continuing the fight for lecturers’ welfare through judicial channels at the Constitutional Court. “We demand that the Court provide a safety net in the form of a binding minimum wage determination for all campus workers,” said Dhia in a written statement on Saturday, 2 May 2026.

In addition to demands to the Court, SPK is calling on President Prabowo Subianto to adhere to the constitution by stopping the cannibalisation of education budgets for the MBG project, and to evaluate higher education policymakers who have proven negligent and lacking in empathy.

Dhia continued that SPK demands the government to prepare a detailed Presidential Regulation on the APBN that is more transparent and accountable.

According to her, the budget amount for teacher and lecturer allowances, both for civil servants (ASN) and non-ASN funded through the APBN, must be listed as a separate budget component, distinct from the lump sum of operational expenditures of the relevant ministry.

“We demand that the DPR fundamentally revise the Manpower Law by changing all instances of ‘employer’ to ‘employer’ in operational articles such as work agreements, wages, workers’ rights, and other norms, to encompass protection for workers in educational institutions,” she said.

Furthermore, Dhia stated that the DPR must insert an explicit principal clause favouring better conditions, affirming that sectoral regulations only apply if they provide better conditions, and are invalid if worse than the Manpower Law.

SPK demands the immediate abolition of the administrative requirement of a “letter of need clearance” for lecturers wishing to transfer campuses, as this practice of document and career hostage-taking indicates forced labour.

Then, Dhia added, the administrative requirement of a duty letter in reporting Lecturer Workload (BKD) must also be eliminated, as this outdated requirement is often misused as a political tool on campus to obstruct and deny recognition of the Tri Dharma works that lecturers have sacrificed and carried out in reality.

The final demand, she said, is that SPK firmly rejects the entry of MBG and militarism into the education environment. The Minister and his staff must stop the exploitation of teachers and lecturers, especially systematic demands to submit solely to market value, as this layered oppression is entirely unworthy of being called humane. “Because the campus should belong to the academic community,” she said.