Portugal’s Labour Protection Model and Lessons for Indonesian Labour Law Reform

The expansion of digitalisation, platform-based employment, and labour market restructuring has intensified debates on how labour law can balance economic flexibility with the protection of workers’ rights. While Indonesian labour reforms have largely focused on enhancing investment competitiveness and employment flexibility, limited comparative scholarship has examined how foreign legal systems successfully integrate labour adaptability with comprehensive worker protection. This study addresses that gap by analysing Portugal’s labour protection framework and evaluating its relevance for Indonesian labour law reform. Using a normative juridical method and comparative legal approach, the research examines key regulatory areas, including employment contracts, teleworking arrangements, working-time regulation, parental leave, occupational health and safety, employment termination, severance compensation, and social security protection. The findings indicate that Portugal has developed a balanced labour governance model that combines labour market flexibility with strong legal safeguards through social dialogue, collective bargaining, welfare-oriented labour policies, and adaptive regulation of emerging forms of work. The study further finds that Indonesia’s labour law framework continues to face challenges related to digital platform workers, remote work regulation, labour protection enforcement, and social security coverage. The novelty of this research lies in its comparative examination of Portuguese labour law as a reference for developing a more responsive and socially balanced labour governance framework in Indonesia. The study contributes to comparative labour law scholarship by demonstrating that labour flexibility and workers’ rights protection can coexist within an integrated regulatory system supported by legal certainty, social justice, and sustainable employment principles.