Tito: All Ministers Have Agreed to One Day of WFH Per Week
Home Affairs Minister Muhammad Tito Karnavian stated that the ministers of the Merah Putih Cabinet have agreed on a day of work from home (WFH), or remote working. This policy of one day of working from home is an effort to save energy.
Tito said the agreement was reached during a cross-ministry coordination meeting attended by Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Pratikno, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, and State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi. The meeting discussed plans for energy-saving policies to anticipate the energy crisis resulting from the war in the West Asia region.
Tito revealed that the outcome of the meeting, including the decision to implement a WFH day, only needs to be reported to President Prabowo Subianto and officially announced to the public. “We had the meeting yesterday, for almost three or four hours, and we agreed unanimously,” Tito said at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday, 25 March 2026.
Tito admitted he does not know which minister the Palace will appoint to announce the one-day-per-week WFH decision. According to the former National Police Chief, he only provided input on the policy. “But I am not authorised to announce it to the public,” he stated.
The Prabowo Subianto government is currently developing a one-day-per-week WFH policy for civil servants and the private sector. Amid preparations for this policy, a proposal has emerged to implement WFH on Fridays, creating a longer weekend sequence of Friday–Saturday–Sunday.
Tito declined to disclose more details about the agreed WFH day. His reason is that the ministers must first report the meeting results to the President.
“I don’t want to specify; yesterday it was already almost leaning towards a majority agreement on the same day. But I won’t say it again because the results of yesterday’s meeting must be reported to the President,” Tito explained.
The plan for WFH for civil servants and the private sector emerged in mid-March 2026. President Prabowo, in a cabinet meeting at the State Palace, encouraged steps to save fuel oil consumption and considered WFH as a measure to anticipate the impacts of the global crisis.
It is known that the surge in global oil prices occurred after the war between the United States and Israel versus Iran erupted at the end of February.
Nevertheless, energy economist and lecturer at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Fahmy Radhi, assessed that it will be very difficult to enforce civil servants and private sector employees to implement WFH. This is because the policy involves changing employees’ work patterns.
He stated that if the one-day WFH scenario is applied on Fridays, employees might not work from home but instead work from anywhere (WFA) at tourist spots while enjoying the long weekend. “Thus, fuel consumption cannot be saved significantly,” he said in a written statement on Sunday, 22 March 2026.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, WFH was quite successful in saving fuel because there was a compulsion variable to avoid Covid-19 infection. This variable does not exist in the one-day WFH policy to be implemented. Without the previous compulsion, it is very difficult for WFH to be implemented consistently.