The effects of precarious employment on quality of life in Indonesian workers

Abstract

This study discusses about the emerging phenomena of precarious working conditions and quality of life in Indonesian urban workers. Although it is a concept that has been discussed widely in the western countries, there is only arguably a few notable studies that has been conducted within the Indonesian background. Precarious working conditions arguably increased within Indonesia when labour outsourcing was legalized in 2003 with the enactment of Labour Law No. 13/2003. The law that came from an agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund regarding the labour flexibility policy. This study addresses the question of whether and how working conditions, work-life balance, and job satisfaction affects the subjective life satisfaction of the Indonesian urban workers. This research using questions derived from the European Quality of Life Survey since there are no datasets for secondary analysis, therefore a survey was conducted modifying the EQLS for the Indonesian context. The results suggest that the conditions are different from the conditions in Europe. Where in Indonesia, work-life balance has a slightly bigger influence on affecting the life satisfaction rather than the job satisfaction of the workers.