ILO supports Indonesia to promote collective bargaining through mediation and labour-management cooperation

The ILO supports the establishment of stronger industrial relations in Indonesia through mediation skills and collective bargaining training programmes.

News | Bogor, West Java, Indonesia | 11 November 2022
The ILO continued to support the efforts taken by the Ministry of Manpower to improve the conditions of industrial relations in the country, particularly to continue strengthening the resilience of the country’s world of work in facing lingering impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. Facilitated by the US Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), the ILO and the Ministry of Manpower organized two training programmes: Mediation Skills Training and Labour Management Collective Bargaining.

Mediation Skills Training and Labour Management Collective Bargaining programmes held in Bogor.
The trainings aimed to contribute to the greater success of negotiation and collective bargaining as a dispute prevention and resolution mechanism in the forms of increased number of cases settled through bipartite mechanism and increased number of collective agreements developed as well as the growth in collective agreement culture for dispute resolution.

I have many questions and worries when carrying out my role as a mediator. The training has opened up my awareness and answered my questions on how to effectively persuade disputing parties and strategically play my role as mediator."

Osaka Debora Sinaga, a provincial mediator from Central Kalimantan
Officially opened by Michiko Miyamoto, Country Director of the ILO in Indonesia and Adriani, Manpower Ministry’s Director of Mediation, these two trainings covered issues on effective communication and social dialogue skills, conflict styles and how they work, handling sources of conflict, neuroscience of conflict, interest-based problem solving principles, effective labour-management committee structures, styles, models and challenges of collective bargaining and navigating difficult behaviors and emotions.

Facilitated by FMCS trainers’ Liz Brenner and Jimmy Valentine and ILO’s industrial relation specialists, Arun Kumar, the participatory training methods used combined theories and practices. The participants were introduced to the various mediation and negotiation models, tools and ethics. In the practical sessions—using role plays, interactive games and group works—they learned on getting to the agreement from the disputing parties and to reach collective decisions based on win-win solutions.

In both trainings, the participants were eager to learn the new techniques of mediation and collective bargaining introduced by FMCS. The case studies used had required the participants to experience negotiation and bargaining in the various simulated conditions. The simulations aimed to strengthen the participants’ skills on communications and conflict resolution.

Participants of collective bargaining programme, representing workers and employers.
The mediation skills training was conducted from 31 October to 4 November in Bogor, West Java. Attended by 48 senior and junior mediators from 25 provinces, the training programme aimed to continue strengthening the capacities of Indonesian mediators across the country during the new normal era. The training programme was a follow-up to the previous training conducted last year. Organized online, the training programme attended by around 400 mediators across Indonesia.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly demanded both workers and employers to find creative solutions and overcome disputes among them by placing business and job sustainability as the main focus."

Nurjaman, representative from the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) Jakarta
One of the participants, Osaka Debora Sinaga, a provincial mediator from Central Kalimantan, expressed her gratitude to have an opportunity to join the training. She actively shared experiences in mediating various conditions. “I have many questions and worries when carrying out my role as a mediator. The training has opened up my awareness and answered my questions on how to effectively persuade disputing parties and strategically play my role as mediator,” she said.

Following up the mediation skills training, a five-day training programme on labour management collective bargaining was conducted from 7 to 11 November. Around 47 representatives of workers and management from five provinces— DKI Jakarta, West Java, East Java, Banten and Central Java—attended the training.

Nurjaman, representative from the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) Jakarta, appreciated the initiative from ILO to continuously encourage workers and employers for dialogue, especially at the enterprise level. “The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly demanded both workers and employers to find creative solutions and overcome disputes among them by placing business and job sustainability as the main focus,” he stated.