8 Demands from Indonesian Workers' Union on May Day 2026

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Association of All Indonesian Workers Unions (ASPIRASI) is pressing eight demands to improve the labor system as part of its May Day, or International Workers’ Day, agenda.

“Amid global challenges, technological disruption, and economic uncertainty, the state must be present to ensure justice and welfare for all workers,” ASPIRASI President Mirah Sumirat said in a written statement on Friday, May 1, 2026.

Mirah emphasized that May Day is not merely a commemoration, but a collective struggle for social justice.

She also urged the state to stand with workers as the backbone of national development. “There is no justice without workers’ welfare,” she added.

Below are ASPIRASI’s eight demands for May Day:

1. Ratification of an Employment Law

The law should serve as the foundation for balanced industrial relations between workers and employers, ensuring the state acts as a protector, not just a regulator.

2. End Mass Layoffs

The government is urged to ensure that companies, including state-owned enterprises, do not use efficiency as a pretext to sacrifice workers.

3. Regulate the Use of AI

The state is called on to regulate the use of artificial intelligence to prevent harm to workers, while ensuring fair human-machine collaboration where technology supports rather than replaces labor.

4. End Exploitative Digital Platform Partnerships

The demand includes abolishing exploitative partnership schemes and recognizing digital platform workers with clear legal status and equal rights.

5. Eliminate Discriminatory and Exploitative Recruitment Practices

The government is urged to stop the exploitation of job seekers, such as prolonged internships without job certainty or fair wages, and to ensure a transparent, fair, and merit-based recruitment system.

6. Improve Healthcare Workers’ Welfare

This includes increasing wages and improving welfare, while ensuring clear employment status and career certainty.

7. Ensure Comprehensive Social Protection

All workers, both formal and informal, should be registered in and protected by the national social security system, including health and employment insurance.

8. Pass the Asset Seizure Bill

The government is urged to promptly pass the bill to enable optimal recovery of assets derived from corruption.

Read: Police Expect 200,000 Workers at Jakarta's Monas for May Day

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