REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA -- A lawmaker has expressed support for the aspirations of workers in East Java to dissolve the Industrial Relations Court and replace it with a new system that upholds social justice.

"We will encourage the revision of Law Number 2/2004 before the end of 2015. This way, we will have a law to better protect workers and strengthen the national industry before the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community. This can be done by improving the system and mechanism of settling disputes more fairly, quickly, easily and cheaply," a member of Commission IX of the House of Representatives, Rieke Diah Pitaloka, said here on Tuesday.

She was responding to the aspirations voiced by the East Java labor union during the commemoration of International Labor Day (May Day) on May 1.

At the event, workers demanded the dissolution of the Industrial Relations Court set up by virtue of Law Number 2/2004 on the settlement of disputes on industrial relations.

Noting that the settlement of such disputes adopts what they term a "capitalist colonialist system," workers opt to go on strike or stage rallies to settle disputes with employers on the grounds that the state no longer protects them.

They said the settlement of disputes on industrial relations fails to provide justice to workers and tends to favor employers.

Nearly 90 percent of layoff cases indicate that employers prefer to provide severance pay to laid-off workers instead of reemploying them, they added.

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