Labour Minister: Trade unions safeguard workers' rights and business sustainability

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of Manpower (Menaker) Yassierli has emphasised that trade unions are not adversaries to companies, but rather strategic partners in safeguarding workers’ rights while supporting business sustainability. In his statement in Jakarta on Friday, the Minister assessed that the existence of trade unions is a vital instrument to ensure that workers’ rights guaranteed by the state are fulfilled through healthy industrial relations and constructive dialogue. “The presence of trade unions is not to disrupt companies, but to ensure that fundamental workers’ rights already guaranteed by the state are met through conducive dialogue,” he said. Furthermore, the Minister added that good industrial relations should not merely be harmonious but must evolve into collaborative and transformative ones. This means that workers and companies need a shared vision to enhance productivity, innovation, and competitiveness. “We want industrial relations to level up, not just harmonious, but also proactive and transformative, where workers and companies share a vision to improve competitiveness,” said Yassierli. The man, who is also a Professor at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), stated that many industrial relations have so far stopped at the harmonious level, namely achieving agreements between workers and management. However, he continued, such conditions are not yet sufficient to optimally drive productivity and innovation. Therefore, the signing of the Collective Work Agreement (PKB) between trade unions and companies is seen as an important momentum to strengthen collaboration between companies and workers in creating a productive, inclusive, and sustainable work environment.