Leaders of five national trade union confederations signed a Joint Commitment on the Involvement of Workers’ Organizations in Skills Development and Lifelong Learning Agenda at Trade Union Summit held in Jakarta on 21 January. The Summit was jointly organized by the ILO and Trade Union Rights Centre (TURC), emphasizing the engagement and important contribution of trade unions in Indonesia’s national movement to access and upgrade its human capital’s skills and competencies, particularly youth.

Marked the peak of the Summit, the Commitment was signed by the Confederation of All Indonesian Labour Unions (KSBSI), the Confederation of All Indonesian Trade Unions-ATUC (KSPSI-ATUC), the Confederation of All Indonesian Trade Unions Reconciliation (KSPSI Rekonsiliasi), the Confederation of Indonesian Moslem Labour Union (K-Saburmusi) and the Confederation of National Trade Union (KSPN).

“The signing of the trade union joint commitment is a significant milestone for trade unions in finding a new avenue for protecting job security and improving welfare of workers by advocating better access for quality skills development and lifelong learning,” stated Tauvik Muhamad, the ILO’s programme manager for the Japanese funded skills development project (InSight-2). “The commitment also creates an opportunity for trade unions to influence skills development policy and to continuously stay relevant with issues related to future of work.”

The Joint Commitment that was developed from the initial trade union position paper on employment skills development released in 2020 highlights five key points on the active involvements of the trade unions at all levels in:

• the formulation of needs-based policies and programmes on skills development and lifelong learning at national, sectoral industry and enterprise levels to enhance workers’ welfare.
• the development of skills development and lifelong learning programmes at national, sectoral industry and enterprise levels to help workers adaptive to digital enhancement, the fast changing of industrial trends and world of work as well as economic disruption.
• the development of skills development and lifelong learning programmes at national, sectoral industry and enterprise levels to ensure workers’ rights for reskilling and upskilling in order to secure job certainty, improve skills development and lifelong learning programmes at national, sectoral industry and enterprise levels productivity and contribute to reduction of unemployment rate.
• the synergies and partnerships of multi-stakeholders on employment issues at national, sectoral industry and enterprise levels, particularly targeted to labour-intensive manufacturing and hospitality industries, including the involvement of the trade union in future sector skill bodies.
• the inclusion of skills development and lifelong learning programmes at enterprise level in company’s collective bargaining agreement.

Drawn based on the signed Joint Commitment, the participating trade union confederations also developed an Action Plan, detailing long-, medium- and short-termed programme activities within the confederations as well as at sectoral industry and enterprise for the period of six months to one year. The Action Plan aims to influence the employment policies related to skills development and lifelong learning, monitor the implementation of the policies and programmes and provide references on the crucial roles of trade unions in skills development programmes.

Meanwhile Kazutoshi Chatani, ILO’s Senior Employment Specialist, commented the important roles of trade unions in human capital development. “The ILO appreciates the actions taken by the trade union confederations as one of the key labour actors in contributing to national efforts to tackle employment challenges and to continuously adapt with the fast-changing world of work, particularly in addressing skills gap, globalization and future of work,” he said.

Prior to the signing of the Joint Commitment and the development of Action Plan, a series of capacity building activities had been conducted with support from the ILO’s Bureau for Workers Activities (ACTRAV) and the ILO’s Industry Skills for Inclusive Growth in Indonesia Phase-2 (InSight-2) Project. The conducted activities included a series of focus group discussions as well as knowledge-sharing and consultation workshops, supporting more active involvements of trade unions in the development of policy strategies and skills intervention.