The decision of the Industrial Relations Court (Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial – PHI) through the Makassar District Court has triggered a wave of rejection from thousands of nickel smelter workers working in the Bantaeng Industrial Estate (KIBA). Although formally this case only ensnared 20 workers as defendants, the impact went far beyond that number—touching all layers of the workforce who depended on the fate of PT Huadi Nickel Alloy, a nickel smelter company operating in the heart of KIBA.
Normatively, the concerns felt by the 20 defendant workers are actually the collective concerns of the entire working class in Indonesia. This ruling has the potential to open a new path of deprivation of workers’ rights, not through regulations, but through jurisprudence formed from the mistakes of judges at the court level. Several crucial points decided in this case are feared to be a strong precedent that affects the course of PHI cases throughout Indonesia.
Furthermore, this ruling reveals a more fundamental concern: The Industrial Relations Court has the potential to shift from its function as a protector of workers’ rights to an instrument that straddles the constitution. That is why this Examination of Decisions needs to be carried out—as a form of public oversight of the course of justice and as an effort to identify legal errors that must not be allowed to be repeated.
The advocacy journey that led this case to the examination stage was not an easy one. KIBA workers and their coalition of supporters have taken various paths of struggle: repeated strikes, a series of hearings with stakeholders, correspondence to relevant institutions, and advocacy at the international level. All of this was carried out hand in hand between the legal team and the Bantaeng Mining and Energy Industry Workers Union (SBIPE)—a long struggle that reflects the seriousness of the violations experienced by the workers.
It is in that context that this examination finds its urgency. Broadly speaking, the panel of judges is considered to have made a number of fundamental mistakes that need to be documented and criticized.
