Reflections on Two Decades of Implementing Trade Union Freedom of Association in Indonesia

Up to now, it has been at least 2 (two) decades of implementation of the right to freedom of association based on Law Number 21 of 2000 concerning Workers' Unions/Labor Unions. Based on data from the Ministry of Manpower in 2020, it was found that since it was ratified on August 4, 2000, the number of workers' unions/labor unions in Indonesia has continued to experience a very significant increase where the number of Confederations continues to grow until now there are 16 Confederations, 114 Federations and 10,748 workers' unions/labor unions recorded at the company level, while the number of workers who are unionized continues to decline. This article begins with a description of the regulation of freedom of association for workers and various problems. This discussion aims to obtain a comparative overview of how positive law in Indonesia regulates freedom of association and various problems and obstacles for workers' unions/labor unions in carrying out their functions. This research is a normative juridical legal research. The discussion shows that the implementation of freedom of association in Law Number 21 of 2000 concerning Workers' Unions/Labor Unions in Indonesia for more than two decades has not been in accordance with the meaning of freedom of association in human rights. Freedom of association in Indonesia is interpreted as the freedom to form workers' unions/labor unions, while the meaning of freedom of association in human rights is the freedom for workers to become or not to become members of a union. This has weakened the trade union movement in Indonesia, which is confirmed by the increasing number of trade union institutions, while inversely proportional to the number of workers who are unionized is decreasing.