Revisiting employment standards: Informalized formal job and bogus partnership in platform courier work

Digital platforms have fundamentally reshaped labor relations across various sectors, including courier services in Indonesia. This study examines how both formal (standard employment) and non-standard (informal employment) models contribute to what we term “super-exploitation.” On one hand, workers nominally classified as employees do not receive adequate protection despite their formal status (informalized formal work), while on the other hand, workers designated as “partners” or independent contractors face similarly precarious conditions (bogus partnership). By integrating a political economy perspective, this research reveals that the mere reclassification of labor from formal to informal conceals the reality that labels do not automatically translate into improved working conditions. Data were collected through a qualitative approach involving a survey of 270 couriers, 24 in-depth interviews, and online participant observation conducted between July 2022 and July 2023. The findings contribute to the ongoing debate on precarious work by demonstrating that the conventional dichotomy of formal versus informal employment fails to capture the underlying ideological and political economic forces shaping Indonesia’s labor regime.