Flexibility Management to Solve Industrial Relation Dispute
Lanny Ramli
Department of Administratif, Faculty of Law, Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia
Keywords: Worker, Employer, Dispute, Flexibility Management, Model.
Abstract: In recent situation, the dispute of industrial relation among the workers and the employers, these are a lot
going on. Those were happened because of: 1) the amount of the workers more than amount of chance to
work for workers; 2) the modernization thrive, so that the factory no needed more worker to do in their factory.
Now production depend on electricity, depend on machine, depend on computer. 3) The machine, the
computer more clever than human. 4) The regulation sometimes less able to keep up with the time. Initially a
dispute in industrial relation had regulated by act number 22 year 1957. At this regulation there were two
kinds dispute. There were dispute of right and dispute of interest (we called it as perselisihan hak dan
perselisihan kepentingan). The dispute of right related with dispute that arise because of one of the parties not
fulfilled requirement or item / items of contract or collective labour agreement. The dispute of interest means
of the effort to chance the requirement on labour condition from the workers to the employers. The stressing
is on contradiction among workers versus employers related the disagree about labour requirement or labour
condition. Now, dispute in industrial relation regulated by act number 2 years 2004. At this regulation we
know about 4 (fourth) kinds disputes: 1) Dispute of right. 2) Dispute of interest. 3) Dispute of termination. 4)
Dispute among union worker. To face the complexitas of industrial relation dispute solution, we should have
the new paradigm to solve the dispute. We need flexibility management to solve the problem in industrial
relation. State of problem : that the flexibility management with the local wisdom is a good model to solve
the industrial relation dispute?
1 INTRODUCTION
Most of the workers need a contract for certainty of
their position, their rights and their obligations. The
essence of contract is that there should be an
agreement. The parties in one contract must first
reach an agreement. To have an agreement, there
should be an offer by one party which is accepted by
the other party (Catherine and Tang, 1997). The
worker's status is necessary to ascertain which
provisions apply to them. There are several
employment statues in Indonesia: among others:
Permanent workers, temporary workers, outsourcing
workers, daily worker. In other countries there is a
difference between employee, worker, independent
contractor. Employees are entitled to the full suite of
common law and statutory employment rights.
Workers and certain categories of self-employed
persons / independent contractors enjoy varying
degrees of limited employment rights (David, 2016).
In a state which is subject to the common law legal
system, the determination of status is very useful for
determining decisions in case of cases to be resolved
through the courts. It is not justified for the same case
with the same employment status, decided by a very
different verdict. Hugh Collins in Simon and John
(2012):
It would clearly be unrealistic to expect the courts
to take a totally policy-oriented, differing in each
case.
In Australia, this country has placed its faith in the
techniques of conciliation and arbitration as the
principal means of dealing with industrial disputes
(Breen and Andrew, 2004) In the Netherlands known
mediation settlement in the conflict (disputes) labor.
Mediators deal with: individual cases, in group’s
cases or among union’s cases. Als een mediator wordt
ingeschakeld om in een arbeidsconflict te bemiddelen
dan dienst hij te weten op welk niveau van een
organisatie de problematiek die aan hem wordt
voorgelegd, is het een conflict tussen bijvoorbeeld
individuen, binnen een team of op organisatieniveau
(van de Griendt and Schtte, 2009).
Ramli, L.
Flexibility Management to Solve Industrial Relation Dispute.
In Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (ANCOSH 2018) - Revitalization of Local Wisdom in Global and Competitive Era, pages 425-428
ISBN: 978-989-758-343-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
425

2 METHODS
This research is applicable in terms of the purposive
random sampling.
 Research Subject: The subjects of study consist
of the workers, the employers, the union
worker in Surabaya. Mojokerto, Pasuruan and
Sidoarjo. There are many variations in the
matters of the workers concerning their
contracts.
 Settings: Related the locations that many
factory at there and there are have the central of
industry like: PIER (Pasuruan Industrial Estate
Rembang), SIER (Surabaya Industrial Estate
Rungkut), Ngoro Industrial Park (Mojokerto),
SiRIE (Sidoarjo Rangkah Industrial Estate).
 Procedures: The study used in depth interview,
with questioners besides literature research.
Some questions stated at questioners papers.
About: the matter of dispute, how to solve the
problem (by personal or by union worker and
what kind of the way to solve) and what the
result.
 Data Collection: The data from questionnaires,
from in depth interviews used for determine
what kind of solution to make the flexible one.
2.1 Research Tools
The matter of dispute, how to solve the problem (by
personal or by union worker and what kind of the way
to solve) and what the result .This questionnaire was
compiled for the matter of dispute, how to solve the
problem (by personal or by union worker and what
kind of the way to solve) and what the result. It was a
self-made questionnaire containing information on
sex of worker, education, the kind of dispute and the
model of resolution for workers.
2.2 Research Conducting Methods
At first, we elaborate about industrial relation dispute
among the worker and employer. Analyse about the
matter and the ways to solve it (based on regulation
and based not by regulation)
In this research, data analysis was performed not
by statistic form or statistic model but by analyse in
sosio-legal model. This research got data in some
locations, some workers and some factories.
For this research we use some questionnaire, but
we completed it by in depth interview. The
questionnaire for the workers contain of:
 Age;
 Sex;
 Education;
 Job;
 How long as a worker;
 The status in the factory;
 Never or ever has a problem at factory;
 What kinds of problems;
 How to solve the problem (by regulation or not
by the regulation) ;
 The result?
3 FINDINGS
3.1 Strike Resolution
Ordinarily, strike action (which is the total
withdrawal of labour) results in a fundamental breach
of an employment contract (Charles, 2000). Strike is
a basic right of workers as a reflection of the
Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia 1945
Article 28 E Paragraph (3): Everyone has the right to
freedom of association, assembly and expression.
Thus the Constitution provides guarantees for
expressing opinions including strikes (Muhammad,
2016).
Based on strike or demonstration statistics, 150
thousand people march in May Day 2017. About
strikes, there is no definitive data because the strike is
done inside the factory so it is more internal, not
detected from the outside, not influence to
community.
According the worker, strikes are a last effort after
the struggle over non-fulfillment of rights or disputes
takes place. In handling problems that occur in
companies based on Act No. 2 of 2004 on Industrial
Relations Dispute Settlement Act are:
 Completed bipartite settled between workers
and employers;
 If the dispute could not be completed at the
company level, then resolved through
employees in the local manpower office;
 If the dispute still could not be resolved by
employees in the labor service then the parties
are asked to choose arbitration or conciliation
settlement;
 If the parties do not choose for arbitration or
conciliation then this dispute shall be settled
through mediation in accordance with
applicable law;
 If the agreement has not reached, the dispute
should be settled through the industrial
relations court.
ANCOSH 2018 - Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
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According the workers, the solution by the steps
of regulation take a long time and not flexible.
Solution by law by court make the parties become an
enemy. The workers want the flexible management to
fulfill their need and their dispute solutions.
According the employer, solution by court
decision more give benefit and certainty for them.
According the union worker, many cases finished
by the court decision. It’s more satisfied for the union
worker. In the other hand, not all worker joint with
union worker.
3.2 Strike: Best Practice or Versus
Local Wisdom?
If both parties have no solution or have no agreement
for the dispute, the strike would conduct. To
minimize the existence of industrial relations disputes
and strike then that needs to be considered is the
ability to communicate both parties. The next
revolution in technology is going to be much more
about focusing on the human dimension, making
technology easier for people to use.
Communication deadlock is central to the
problem. Whereas in fact there is a flexible
management model through Bipartite Cooperation
Institutions (Lembaga Kerja Sama Bipartit / LKS
Bipartit) that could be a medium for prevention of
disputes. With the activeness of the both parties in the
Bipartite Cooperation Institution (Lembaga Kerja
Sama Bipartit / LKS Bipartit), it is counterproductive
to the presence of strikes activity.
On the other hand entrepreneurs prefer case
handling ways compared to doing preventive steps in
the organizational mechanism of the company. This
is because not all management understands well how
to manage risk management in industrial relations so
the they taken a choices to solve problems, not how
to prevent problems.
According the worker, the steps to solve the
problem take too long time. From bipartit until the
final decision could be take one and a half year. It’s
pays suffering to the workers despite the provision of
payment of wage proceeds as long as the worker has
not yet determined the termination of their
employment in the industrial relations court but the
wage payment of this process is often depend on the
condition that there is an industrial relations court
decision
According the employer, solve the industrial
relation dispute is more polite than use the strike. If
there is the strike strategy to solve the problems,
usually make the employer angrier and the process
like a war between worker and the employer.
According the union worker, the strike is the best
choice to solve the problem, if there is deadlock
situation. In union worker viewing, the employer
could be fulfilled the claim if there’s no choice
anymore.
3.3 The Gate of Peace
Basically this dynamic industrial relations follow the
existing developments in society. The modern ways
of resolving industrial relations disputes have been
used.
People are increasingly aware of the law, acts and
regulations are well established in accordance with
the laws and regulations that existing before,
following the hierarchy of law, not contradictory to
the law and follow international provisions that we
ratify frequently.
But we cannot deny the local wisdom is very
influential. Local wisdom as ideas, values, local
views, wise, good value, embedded and followed by
members of the community. Local wisdom also
define as part of the culture of a society that could not
be separated from the language of society itself.
The topics of disagreement that caused to the
strike are:
 Collective labor agreement;
 Review the labor law;
 Industrial relationship;
 Social security;
 Payment or salary.
Until now strike usually chosen despite the strike
not reflection the deadlock.
The points could led to the failure of the
negotiations that could be strike, among others:
 Lack of awareness attitude from the mediator;
 Lack of openness from the parties;
 The Mediator only focus on suggestions;
 The Mediator is not competent to solve the
problem;
 There have no minimum standards of
mediation process.
For further, we should arising again the flexibility
management with local wisdom like: “musyawarah
untuk mufakat” as the good choice for innovation
problem solving.
By using the flexibility management with local
wisdom means we build the gate of peace in industrial
relationship.
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427

4 CONCLUSIONS
After got research about the solution of industrial
relation dispute, we knew that:
 There are 4 (four) kinds disputes in industrial
relations, such as : dispute of rights, dispute of
interest, dispute of termination (dismissal) and
dispute among union worker;
 There are many step to solve the dispute
according the act no 2 year 2004;
 There are take a long time to reach the final
decision for the dispute;
 If there no smooth ways by bipartite, tripartite,
choose the conciliation or arbitration and the go
to mediation ways, they or the parties try to
solve by court. By industrial relationship court
and we called “pengadilan hubungan
industrial.”;
 There is possibility the workers by union
worker use the strike action to end the dispute.
According the workers, they need simple
treatment to solve the industrial relation dispute that
take not long time and not expensive cost.
According the employers, they better handling
case compared with prevention ways by Lembaga
Kerjasama Bipartit (LKS Bipartit).
According the union worker, employer’s action
should be against with the firm action such as strike
or demonstration.
Finally, according all parties, the flexible
management by “musyawarah untuk mufakat” is the
best model to solve the industrial relation problem.
For further better we use the flexibility
management by local wisdom that we called
“musyawarah untuk mufakat” to solve the problem.
The workers, the union worker, the employer and the
officer from local man power office or mediator
should be understand, have awareness that ways
REFERENCES
Breen, C., Andrew, S., 2004. Labour Law, The Federation
Press. New South Wales. p 16.
Catherine, T. S. K., Tang, S. C., 1997. Contract Law, times
Books International. Singapore. p.20.
Charles, B., 2000. Industrial Relation Law, Cavendish
Publishing, London, United Kingdom. p. 287.
David, C., 2016. Employment Law, Pearson Longmann.
England. P.5.
Muhammad, A. W., 2016. Strike Resolution, Pusat Studi
APINDO. Jakarta. h.1.
Simon, H., John, B., Textbook on Labour Law, Oxford
University Press. p. 20.
H.F.M. van de Griendt & E.Schtte, Mediation in
Arbeidsconflicten, Nederlands Mediation Institute,
2009, P.17.
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