Humanitarian Manifesto: Reconstructing BPJS Employment Policy to Achieve Universal Social Protection in the Gig Economy Era

Abstract

This study aims to conduct a juridical and sociological analysis of the vital role of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan as a personification of public law (public legal entity) in actualizing the constitutional mandate of social security protection in Indonesia. By using a qualitative descriptive approach through in-depth literature study and policy analysis methods, this discourse systematically explores the transformative institutional evolution, starting from the era of PT ASTEK (1977), PT Jamsostek (1992), until its culmination in the transformation into a public legal entity in 2014 based on the mandate of Law Number 24 of 2011. The central focus of the analysis is directed at the effectiveness of the five pillars of the core program, namely Work Accident Insurance (JKK), Death Insurance (JKM), Old Age Insurance (JHT), Pension Insurance (JP), and the latest protection instrument, Job Loss Insurance (JKP), in mitigating socio-economic risks and preventing the degradation of workers’ welfare. Phenomenologically, the research findings reveal a sharp contradiction between regulatory idealism and field reality, where there is a significant gap in participation between the formal and informal sectors. Although the national workforce continues to grow, reaching 154 million people by August 2025, the employment profile is still dominated by the informal sector, which reaches 59.40%. However, the participation rate of this group is still very limited, namely below 15% of the total national informal workforce. This gap is triggered by multidimensional factors, ranging from low social security literacy, the perception of contributions as an additional economic burden, the practice of under-reporting wages by companies that violate normative workers’ rights, to bureaucratic obstacles in the claim mechanism in remote areas. The novelty of this research emphasizes the importance of adaptive policy reconstruction to the disruption of the digital economy (gig economy) through the integration of artificial intelligence technology and flexible contribution schemes to increase the inclusiveness of protection for self-employed workers. This analysis confirms that social security is not merely an administrative obligation, but a humanitarian instrument and a civilizational investment to break the chain of structural poverty. Strategic recommendations are directed at strengthening rigid law enforcement regarding corporate compliance, simplifying service access through zero-human-touch digitalization, and internalizing the values ​​of social justice to ensure equitable national economic stability for all Indonesian people in accordance with the mandate of Article 28 H and Article 34 of the 1945 Constitution.