Companies often have strict rules when it comes to the workplace romance, such as banning employees to date or even marry their coworkers. If employees are found to violate such role, some tough consequences are waiting for them. For example, if two teammates intend to tie the knot, either the husband or wife will be transferred and moved to another division in the company. In some cases, one of them even have to resign from their position.

However, if you work in Indonesia and your partner is based in the same institution, you do not have to worry about being dismissed from the team when you want to get married. Based on the decision of the Constitutional Court on Thursday (Dec 12), now Indonesian employees are allowed to marry their colleague without having to resign first. This right was regulated under the article 153 verse 1 of Law Number 13 Year 2003 regarding Manpower.

The primary content of the verse is that employers are prohibited to conduct termination of employment to workers who have a blood relation or marital ties with other workers in the same company, unless the matter has been stated on initial work agreement or company rules. The last phrase regarding to work agreement between employer and employees is regarded to have no binding legal force. Thus, the Court ruled that employers are prohibited from terminating employees by reason of marriage or affiliation with other workers within an institution, CNN Indonesia reported.

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A lawsuit against this matter was originally filed by Jhoni Boetja and seven other petitioners who accompanied him in the material test. All of the petitioners feel aggrieved by the regulation, as it limits human’s right to marry.

In his judgment, the judge stated that the ban is not in accordance with Article 28D verse 2 of Indonesian’s Constitution. According to the judge, a marriage can be considered as fate that cannot be planned. Therefore, terminating an employee just because they want to get married cannot be accepted as a legitimate and constitutional reason.

The judges said that there is no moral, religious, security, and public order norms that would be violated by the fact that employees marry co-workers. On the other hand, conflicts of interest that might come from colleague marriage can be prevented by formulating strict company regulations. After all, it is crucial to build a working environment that encourages integrity to create professional and fair work conditions.

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