Platform Labour and the Reconstruction of Employment Law in Indonesia’s Digital Work Relations

Abstract

Platform labour has altered the legal organization of work in Indonesia by expanding digitally mediated labour arrangements across everyday service sectors. Despite this transformation, legal debate has remained strongly oriented toward worker classification, leaving broader questions about algorithmic governance, fragmented workplace authority, and technologically mediated labour vulnerability insufficiently developed. This article aims to examine how platform labour reconstructs legal work relations in Indonesia beyond the employee–independent contractor binary. The study applies a qualitative doctrinal and conceptual research design grounded in the analytical dimensions of economic dependency, functional subordination, and digital control. Data were drawn from Indonesian legal materials, regulatory texts, and relevant academic discussions on employment law and platform labour. The analysis was conducted through interpretive examination of the gap between formal contractual status and the actual organization of work under platform systems. A structured analytical framework was used to assess how dependency, authority, and control operate in digitally mediated labour relations. The discussion indicates that platform labour in Indonesia cannot be understood adequately through contractual classification alone because legal vulnerability is increasingly produced through data-driven governance and indirect forms of labour discipline. Employment law therefore requires a broader normative orientation that recognizes dependency, subordination, and control in technologically mediated work settings. The article contributes to the field by offering a coherent legal framework for analyzing platform labour as a transformation of work relations rather than merely a dispute over worker status.