UPNVJ Lecturer Status Dispute: Expert Warns Against Non-Retroactive Principle

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Legal expert from Universitas Pembangunan Nasional ‘Veteran’ Jakarta (UPNVJ), Prof Bambang Waluyo, has cautioned that new administrative rules cannot annul legal relationships that were lawfully established in the past, citing the non-retroactive principle. In a statement in Jakarta on Saturday, Bambang explained that employment agreements lawfully made by the previous rector’s leadership are binding and must be respected by all parties. ‘The status and legal relationships that arose through decrees and agreements signed between non-ASN lecturers and UPN during the previous rector’s tenure cannot simply be erased by a new administrative policy. Lawfully made agreements must be respected and bind the parties as law does,’ he said. Bambang assessed that a new policy or regulation from the rectorate cannot arbitrarily abolish old employment rights that are still in effect and protected by law. In agreement, UPNVJ State Administrative Law Expert, Prof Taufiqurrohman Syahuri, considered that the decrees of active lecturers are legally valid operational bases under state administration. As long as the past appointment decrees have not been officially revoked through proper procedures, their entire content retains positive legal force that the institution must comply with. ‘The basis for salary and allowance payments is each lecturer’s decree. As long as that decree has not been revoked, UPNVJ is obliged to pay their salaries and honorariums. If not paid, it may violate administrative or civil law, and there is even potential for criminal embezzlement of state finances,’ Syahuri stated. From an institutional perspective, former UPNVJ Rector Prof. Dr. Erna Hernawati added that the existence of these permanent non-ASN lecturers has a strong historical foundation dating back to the campus’s transition into a New State University. It was previously known that there was a polemic regarding the arrangement of the employment status of permanent non-State Civil Apparatus lecturers within the campus, which subsequently became a complaint to the UPN Veteran Jakarta Professors’ Complaint and Consultation Forum. This polemic surfaced after a number of permanent non-ASN lecturers complained to the Professors’ Forum because they objected to being asked to sign documents unilaterally changing their status to Professional Workers. Internal data shows that the majority of lecturers, approximately 73 percent or 27 out of 37 people, chose to withhold the document due to concerns that signing it would nullify the legality of their old decrees and their financial rights. In response, the UPNVJ Professors’ Complaint and Consultation Forum recommended the formation of an independent team to comprehensively examine the legality aspects of the employment status change so as not to violate the principle of legal certainty.