Minister of PANRB: WFH is an opportunity for improvement, not a reduction in working hours
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Minister for State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform, Rini Widyantini, stated that the work-from-home (WFH) policy represents an opportunity to improve digital governance, rather than a reduction in civil servants’ working hours.
The statement was made by Rini in response to questions from members of Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) regarding the WFH policy for civil servants (ASN) to address geopolitical dynamics, during a working meeting at the parliamentary complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Tuesday.
“We indeed want to make improvements. It is not about reducing working hours, but about how we improve to promote digital government and enhance governance,” she said.
Rini explained that, in broad terms, the mechanism for implementing WFH is regulated in Ministerial Regulation No. 4 of 2025 on the Flexible Performance of Civil Servant Duties in Government Agencies.
According to her, through the implementation of flexible work schemes, including WFH, the government is shifting the paradigm from being oriented towards physical presence to being results-oriented.
Rini added that government agencies are allowed to set further rules regarding flexible work schemes. However, WFH must not compromise the quality of essential public services.
“So, the approach is that essential public services cannot be done via WFH. They must provide direct services, but for hybrid ones, we can implement flexible working arrangements like that,” she said.
After the meeting, Rini emphasised that WFH literally means working from home. She made this remark when questioned by reporters about whether ASN could work from anywhere, including cafes.
“It’s work from home, that’s the name. The mechanism will be in the PANRB Ministerial Regulation,” she said.
Previously, the government officially implemented the WFH policy for ASN every Friday. The government also issued recommendations for WFH in the private sector.
The Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, stated in a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday that the policy will apply starting from 1 April 2026 and will be evaluated after two months of implementation.
Several sectors are exempted from this WFH policy, including public services (health, security, and sanitation), as well as strategic sectors (industry, energy, water, basic commodities, food and beverages, trade, transportation, logistics, and finance).
In the education sector, teaching and learning activities for primary to secondary levels will continue to be conducted face-to-face, while for higher education, implementation will adjust to the policies of the relevant ministries.