The Plural Regulation of Work: A Pilot Study of Restaurant Workers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

This research project investigates the formal laws and informal norms and institutions, and the overlaps and interactions between them, in the regulation of work arrangements in restaurants in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. While there has been much attention paid in recent years to the failure of formal labour law to protect workers around the world, there is far less understanding of what actually determines working conditions of many workers beyond the scope of the law. While the importance of informal norms and institutions in regulating work is beginning to be acknowledged in the literature on labour law, the functioning of informal regulation and its relationship to formal labour law is still poorly understood. This empirical project aims to explore this gap in understanding in this one location and economic sector.

Keywords: labour regulation, Indonesia, restaurants, informal norms