New rules 2026: the Employment Protection Law is not yet in force

The Employment Protection Law was approved by the DPR on 6 October 2026, but it is not yet in force. The current rules still apply. This page summarises what has been reported, who said it, and what cannot yet be confirmed. The status is as of 2 November 2026; we will update it when there are official developments.

Status in brief

• 6 October 2026: the DPR plenary approved the Employment Protection Bill (RUU Pelindungan Ketenagakerjaan), with 23 chapters and 313 articles. The passage follows Constitutional Court Decision 168/PUU-XXI/2023, which gave two years, until 31 October 2026, to create a separate employment law (Antara, 6 October 2026).
• 21 October 2026: Manpower Minister Yassierli said the text was still being processed at the State Secretariat before being announced through JDIH. The Manpower Ministry’s Director General for Industrial Relations and Social Security said the law has a one-year transition from when it is enacted and promulgated, and its new wage rules are expected to be used only for the 2028 minimum wage (CNBC Indonesia, 21 October 2026).
• 26 October 2026: a law firm (BP Lawyers) wrote that the promulgation number and text could not be confirmed from the regulation databases it checked. The same day, KSPSI’s president said the text was at the State Secretariat awaiting the President’s signature, and in his view the law takes effect immediately if not signed by 6 November. That is KSPSI’s view and differs from the Manpower Ministry’s statement about a one-year transition (Kompas.com, 26 October 2026).
• As of 2 November 2026: we have not found a law number or the official text. So everything below comes from press reports and from people who have examined the text, not from the official text.

Rules in force now

Until promulgation and the commencement provisions are clear, the rules still used include Law 13/2003 as amended by Law 6/2023, Constitutional Court Decision 168/PUU-XXI/2023 and PP 35/2021 (BP Lawyers, 26 October 2026). All Saling Jaga guides on REKATI use these rules. Manpower Minister Regulation 7/2026 on outsourcing has been in force since 30 April 2026 and is separate from the new law (BP Lawyers).

What is reported to change

This list is not verified against the official text. Treat it as a signpost, not as rights you can already claim.

One note to avoid confusion: Kompas.id quotes OPSI’s secretary-general regretting the loss of the 15 percent allowance for housing and for medical treatment and care, calculated on severance and long-service pay. That component was in the original text of Law 13/2003 but is no longer in the list of replacement-of-rights items under the rules in force now (Law 6/2023 Art. 156(4)). So it is not a change you would feel compared with the current rules.

Much is delegated to implementing regulations

A UGM labour-law lecturer who examined the text said the phrase “regulated by government regulation” appears in at least 47 articles, and delegation to ministerial regulations in 15, including on types of employment relationship, limits on work flexibility and outsourcing (Kompas.id, 6 October 2026). That means important details may still shift when the implementing regulations are issued.

Different assessments

• The UGM lecturer quoted by Kompas.id said creating a separate law deserves appreciation but the result feels “anticlimactic”, and pointed to a final drafting stage that was partly closed.
• Labour confederation leaders quoted in the same source saw progress, for example the cap on PKWT and the severance guarantee fund, but acknowledged they had not yet received the official text.
• KSPSI urged the law to take effect quickly (Kompas.com, 26 October 2026).

What this means for you now

• Use the rules in force now for decisions in front of you today: reading a contract, responding to a layoff, calculating overtime. See check your contract and laid off.
• Do not infer new rights from the news. Wait for the official text in a government regulation database (for example JDIH BPK or peraturan.go.id) and read the transitional and commencement provisions.
• Contracts already running: we have not found a source explaining how the new rules apply to existing PKWT or agreements.
• If a big decision is close (signing a mutual agreement, a severance offer), do not rely on the news. Find a legal adviser, for example LBH (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum, legal aid institutes) or a lawyer. REKATI is not affiliated with them and does not take cases.