Officials Who Hire Temporary Workers to Face Administrative and Criminal Sanctions

Officials who continue to recruit temporary workers (tenaga honorer) will face sanctions. Commission II of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) has included these sanctions in the revision of Law Number 20 of 2023 on the State Civil Apparatus (UU ASN).

Chairman of Commission II of the DPR, Rifqinizamy Karsayuda, explained that the sanctions may be administrative as well as criminal in nature.

“We will fight for sanctions against officials, whether at the ministerial, institutional, or regional government level, who continue to appoint honorary workers and other nomenclatures,” he asserted in Jakarta on Tuesday (19/8).

According to the DPR, sanctions are necessary in the prohibition on recruiting temporary workers. Without sanctions, the problem of temporary workers continues to persist. He noted that there is already a scheme for government employees with work agreements (PPPK).

The Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri), he said, has been considered consistent in prohibiting the recruitment of temporary workers under any nomenclature.

The DPR and the government have stated that they are finalising the status of PPPK teachers to be appointed as civil servants (PNS). This was agreed upon in a joint meeting on Tuesday (18/8).

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Bima Arya emphasised that regional heads are no longer permitted to recruit new staff. He pledged that Kemendagri will step in to oversee, conduct outreach, and ensure that regional heads no longer recruit new staff.

“Everything is adjusted according to the stages agreed upon based on today’s meeting,” said Bima during a press conference at the parliamentary complex in Senayan, Jakarta.

Regional heads, he explained, have requested fiscal assistance from the central government to pay salaries and to transition the status of part-time and full-time PPPK workers to civil servants.