The Role of Mediators and The Legal Force of Recommendation in the Settlement of Industrial Relations Disputes
DOI:
10.59888/ajosh.v4i10.740Published:
2026-07-10Downloads
Abstract
Industrial relations disputes remain a significant challenge in Indonesia’s employment landscape, often arising from disagreements over rights, interests, termination of employment, or conflicts among labor unions. Although the legal framework prioritizes dispute resolution through deliberation and consensus, with bipartite negotiations serving as the primary mechanism, mediation plays a crucial role when such negotiations fail. This study analyzed the role of mediators and the legal implications of mediator recommendations, both normatively and empirically, while evaluating the extent to which existing legal provisions align with the principles of justice and the judicial ideals of simplicity, speed, and low cost. Employing a normative juridical research method with statutory and conceptual approaches, this study examined Law Number 2 of 2004 concerning the Settlement of Industrial Relations Disputes, labor regulations, and Constitutional Court Decision Number 68/PUU-XIII/2015. The findings revealed that although mediators play a significant role in facilitating dispute resolution by providing legal clarification and proposing equitable solutions, their recommendations lack binding legal force, thereby reducing their effectiveness and creating legal uncertainty. This condition may disproportionately disadvantage workers, who are generally in weaker socio-economic positions. The study recommends legal reform to strengthen the enforceability of mediator recommendations, including the establishment of statutory time limits and the potential granting of binding force under certain conditions, to enhance legal certainty, efficiency, and fairness in industrial dispute resolution.
Keywords:
industrial relations mediation recommendation legal certainty labor lawLicense
Copyright (c) 2026 Taufik Hidayat, Darwati Darwati
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
