Paradigmatic Approach of the Formulation of Social Protection for Homeworkers within the Perspective of Progressive Law

Abstract

The system wherein work is conducted outside the company’s work system (putting-out system) and industrial sub-contracting system have become a trend nowadays, and have even become a very promising option in the free trade era. Home-based work is a symptom of self-exploitation in which there is a mobilization of labor force with low or no wages, and in which family members or children are exploited as work force with very low wages. Homeworkers are marginal workers neglected by the system of employment rules and absent from the target of existing social protection programs. This situation is regarded as an anomaly that produces a state of crisis in Indonesian employment laws. The legal-positivistic paradigm of employment laws is unable to adjust the needs of the homeworker communities, so a new paradigm needs to be proposed in order to view the realm of law differently, namely through the paradigm of progressive law. Intrinsically, the paradigm of progressive law emphasizes the servitude of law in the society and is oriented to law’s value of justice that is more substantial than procedural, namely a law that could improve the welfare of the people.

Keywords: Homeworkers, Progressive Law Paradigm, Social Protection