Workers, the Gig Economy, and Employee Welfare
The challenges facing workers today are no longer solely rooted in factories and production machines, but in algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), and the illusion of freedom known as the ‘gig economy’.
A few days before May Day, on 28 April 2026, thousands of online motorcycle drivers (ojol) in Surabaya took to the streets, crowding the East Java Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) office. The action was not without reason. They were no longer facing factory foremen, but protesting against ‘naughty applicators’.
Their three main demands reflect the new face of gig workers: urging administrative sanctions for applicators violating regulations, rejecting cheap tariff programmes that strangle livelihoods, and demanding the restoration of humane tariffs in accordance with local government provisions.
This phenomenon vividly illustrates the shift in the world of work from classic industrial relations to platform-based work relationships controlled by digital systems. This shift is not merely a change in the medium of work, but also a change in power relations, from those previously apparent in labour-employer relationships, to those hidden in the logic of algorithms that are difficult to monitor.
In this context, workers’ issues are no longer just about low wages, but also about unclear status and weak protection. Gig workers are positioned as ‘partners’, yet in practice, they do not have equal bargaining power.
They are not entirely free, but also not recognised as workers entitled to social security, income certainty, or legal protection.
Labour Day commemorations must become a turning point to redefine what is meant by ‘workers’ and ‘welfare’, especially amid the strengthening of two major currents shaping the current face of employment.
The Partnership Dilemma
The first current is the explosion of the gig economy, which positions workers in a grey area. Based on the February 2025 National Labour Force Survey (Sakernas) by BPS, around 86.58 million people or 59.40% of our population now work in the informal sector. Amid the positive trend of declining open unemployment to 4.76%, this figure confirms that the informal sector, including gig workers, has become the main safety valve for absorbing national labour.
The gig system does offer an attractive flexibility, freeing workers from the confines of the 9-to-5 office space. However, their significant role as an economic driver is not matched by the protection they receive.
Behind the ‘partner’ jargon lies vulnerability (precarity). Gig workers are positioned as if equal, yet in practice, they lack bargaining power. In this pseudo-partnership relationship, workers bear almost all production risks; from the absence of minimum wage guarantees, the threat of unilateral suspension, to minimal insurance protection.
Data from BPJS Ketenagakerjaan (2025) shows this uneven picture: of a total of 39.7 million active participants, only around 8.99 million come from the Non-Wage Recipient (BPU) segment. The lack of regulatory obligations for digital platforms to register their partners makes participation voluntary.
As a result, millions of workers are left to bear protection costs themselves or forced to resign themselves to facing work accident risks without adequate social security.
The Shadow of Automation
The second current is the existential threat from automation and artificial intelligence. Digital transformation is no longer just replacing repetitive physical jobs, but beginning to encroach on administrative and white-collar realms. Generative AI is slowly taking over tasks in design, writing, customer service, and data analysis.
For corporations, this is purely about efficiency. But for workers, it is an alarm bell. If the government and industry players do not immediately design massive upskilling and reskilling programmes, we will face a wave of structural layoffs (PHK).
Technology should be designed as a tool to humanise and facilitate work, not merely as a capitalist instrument to cut costs by sidelining humans.
The State Must Be Present
Facing these two major currents, our labour law appears stuttering and lagging. Existing policies still use a 20th-century industrial paradigm, while the problems faced are 21st-century digital issues.
It is time for the government to design a new legal umbrella, both at the central level and regional regulations (Perda), that specifically recognises and protects platform-based workers. Basic rights such as humane working hours, decent minimum tariffs, protection from unilateral suspensions, and the right to unionise in digital spaces must be guaranteed by law.
On the other hand, the social security system like BPJS Ketenagakerjaan must also be more proactive in embracing workers with fluctuating incomes.
Labour Day is a momentum to reconstruct our social safety net. Worker welfare in the digital era is no longer just measured by the minimum wage received at the end of the month, but by a sense of security (job security) and protection from exploitation behind gadget screens.
Gig workers and digital labourers are not merely algorithm variables in applications, but the backbone of the nation’s economy whose dignity must be protected by the state.