Employers-workers relationship

People who lived during the Dutch colonial times used to refer to unskilled laborers as contractual kuli. The relationship between employers and laborers, however, was not set out in a contract. It was a relationship that was peculiar to the colonizers and the colonized people, who were subjected to the regulations made by the colonial rulers.

Generally, the colonial rulers imposed regulations on the colonized people, for example plantation laborers, in favor of the colonizers so that they could get the most out of the colonized people. The colonial rulers didn't care a jot about the welfare of the colonized people.

Unfortunately, this relationship can still be found today, between employers and workers, or between state/government institutions and semi-permanent government employees, like substitute teachers, seasonal clerks etc.

In the private sector, for example in the textile industry, an employee can loose their job because their contract has finished. Or, this can happen because the company gets few orders or goes bankrupt.

The situation is different, however, in the case of civil servants, such as members of the Indonesian Military and members of the National Police, with reference to Law No. 43/1999 on civil servants.

It has long been observed that dedication and services rendered in accordance to a working contract in the area of state apparatuses tend to mean very little, partly due to the weak built-in control in state agencies.

SUNGKOWO SOKAWERA, Bandung