When Law No. 4 of 2024 on Mother and Child Welfare (Undang-Undang Kesejahteraan Ibu dan Anak or UU KIA) was signed into law on 2 July 2024, the headline that circulated most widely was a single number: six months. Maternity leave, doubled. What that headline consistently failed to convey is the structure underneath it, the conditions, the salary obligations, the prohibition on termination, and the company regulation updates that make UU KIA a compliance obligation for employers, not just a policy announcement for employees.
Two years on, the gap between what UU KIA says and what companies have actually updated in their employment contracts and internal regulations remains significant. For any foreign-owned company operating in Indonesia, this gap is a legal exposure.
What UU KIA Actually Changed: Three Specific Things
The most important thing to clarify before anything else is what the six-month leave provision actually means, because the most common misunderstanding about UU KIA is that maternity leave has automatically become six months for every employee. It has not.
Article 4, paragraph (3) of UU KIA establishes a two-tier structure. The first tier is a minimum of three months of post-birth leave, mandatory for every qualifying employee regardless of circumstances. This baseline replaces the previous arrangement under the Manpower Law, which split the three-month entitlement between pre-birth and post-birth leave (1.5 months before and 1.5 months after). Under UU KIA, the full three months are structured as post-birth leave.
The second tier, the additional three months bringing the total to six, is conditional. It applies only when a doctor’s certificate confirms that specific circumstances exist:
- The mother is experiencing health problems, health complications, or post-birth complications arising from the delivery or a miscarriage
- The child is experiencing health problems, health conditions, or birth complications
Without a doctor’s certificate confirming one of these conditions, the additional three months do not apply. A company that treats six months as the automatic standard for all employees is over-extending a conditional entitlement. A company that treats three months as the maximum ceiling is under-providing where conditions are met.
The Salary Schedule During Extended Leave
The second specific change from UU KIA is the salary framework for employees who take the full six months. Article 5, paragraph (2) establishes a three-step payment schedule:
- Full salary for the first three months (the mandatory baseline)
- Full salary for the fourth month (the first month of the conditional extension)
- 75 percent of full salary for the fifth and sixth months
This structure means the first four months of leave, whether taken under the mandatory baseline plus one month of conditional extension, or structured differently within the total, carry full pay obligations. The cost reduction to 75 percent applies only in the fifth and sixth months. For HR and payroll teams modeling the cost of maternity leave, this distinction matters: a six-month leave does not mean six months at reduced cost from month four. It means full cost through month four, then reduced cost for months five and six.
This salary calculation also interacts with the company’s payroll structure in ways that require the THR (Tunjangan Hari Raya) calculation to be reviewed, since maternity leave periods count toward the service tenure used for pro-rata THR computation. The full mechanics of how leave periods interact with THR and other statutory entitlements are addressed in the THR compliance guide for Indonesia.
Termination During Maternity Leave Is Void by Law
UU KIA reinforces an existing protection that was already in the Manpower Law but that employers regularly underestimate in enforcement terms. Terminating an employee during maternity leave, whether during the mandatory three months or the conditional extension, is null and void by operation of law under Article 153 of the Manpower Law as reinforced by the Job Creation Law. If a company issues a termination notice during this period, the termination has no legal effect, and the company is required to reinstate the employee. The criminal penalty framework for violations is found in Article 185 of the Manpower Law: imprisonment of between one and four years, or a fine between IDR 100 million and IDR 400 million.
For companies going through organizational restructuring or workforce reductions, the practical implication is that maternity leave status must be verified before any termination decision is finalized. An employee on maternity leave cannot be included in a headcount reduction, regardless of the operational rationale behind the reduction.
Explore Our Services HR Administration in Indonesia
The Paternity Leave Provision That Most Companies Have Not Addressed
UU KIA introduced a provision that received considerably less coverage than the maternity leave extension but that creates a new employer obligation: paternity leave for husbands accompanying their wives during childbirth.
Article 6 of UU KIA establishes a right to 40 days of leave for the husband, structured as two days during and immediately after the delivery plus up to 38 additional days of accompanying leave. This provision replaced the previous two-day standard under the Manpower Law for paternity-related leave. The 40-day entitlement applies with full salary paid by the employer.
Most companies whose employment contracts or Company Regulations (Peraturan Perusahaan) were drafted before July 2024 reference the old two-day standard, or reference it by citation to the Manpower Law without specifying a day count. Those contracts and regulations are now understating the employer’s legal obligation. For any company that has not updated its employment documentation to reflect the 40-day paternity leave entitlement, the gap creates both a compliance risk and an employee relations exposure if an employee exercises this right and the company applies the old two-day standard.
The Workplace Obligation That Goes Beyond Leave Duration
UU KIA does not only address leave duration and salary. It also creates obligations for the physical workplace environment, specifically for nursing mothers returning from maternity leave.
Article 4, paragraph (6) of UU KIA establishes the right of breastfeeding mothers to receive time and proper facilities for breastfeeding or expressing milk during working hours. The obligation extends to employers: companies must provide a dedicated, private, hygienic lactation room with appropriate facilities. This obligation applies regardless of company size, sector, or location.
For companies whose current workplace arrangement does not include a dedicated lactation room, this is not an aspirational guideline. It is a legally mandated facility. Companies operating in shared office buildings or co-working spaces need to assess whether their arrangement meets this requirement or whether supplementary provision is needed.
What Company Regulations and Employment Contracts Need to Reflect
UU KIA creates three specific documentation obligations for employers that go beyond simply knowing what the law says.
Company Regulations (Peraturan Perusahaan) must be updated to reflect the new maternity leave structure, the salary schedule during extended leave, the paternity leave entitlement, the lactation facility obligation, and the reinforced termination prohibition. A Company Regulation that cites the pre-UU KIA standard without amendment is non-compliant as a matter of employment law, and a non-compliant Company Regulation creates exposure in any labor dispute that references it.
Employment contracts for female employees and for employees whose spouses may become pregnant during their employment need to reflect the updated leave entitlements explicitly. Contracts that incorporate leave rights by reference to “applicable Indonesian law” will generally be interpreted in favor of the more protective standard, but this ambiguity is better resolved through explicit language.
Payroll configuration needs to reflect the 75 percent salary rate for months five and six of extended maternity leave as a distinct pay code or leave category, separate from the full-pay months. A payroll system that treats all maternity leave months at full pay is overcounting cost in an expected scenario but may underpay if the same logic is applied incorrectly in the other direction.
For companies that are simultaneously managing compliance with the employee contract type framework under PP No. 35 of 2021, the interaction between maternity leave entitlements and fixed-term contract (PKWT) structures requires specific attention. A PKWT employee on maternity leave whose contract expires during the leave period sits at the intersection of two legal protections: the termination prohibition during leave and the fixed-term contract expiry. This intersection is not resolved explicitly in UU KIA and represents an area where specific legal advice is appropriate before a decision is made. The broader framework of contract types and the severance obligations that arise at termination is covered in the guide to employment contract types in Indonesia.
The PP Pelaksana Gap: What Is Still Pending
UU KIA mandates the issuance of implementing regulations (Peraturan Pemerintah or PP) within two years of the law being enacted. That deadline was July 2026. As of the date of this publication, the PP has not been issued. This is a material gap in the regulatory framework, because PP pelaksana typically addresses the technical detail of implementation, including enforcement mechanisms, coordination between agencies, and sector-specific adaptations that the parent law does not fully specify.
The absence of the PP does not reduce the enforceability of UU KIA’s provisions. The law itself is directly applicable, and its provisions on maternity leave duration, the salary schedule, the termination prohibition, the paternity leave entitlement, and the lactation facility obligation are all in force without requiring the PP to give them effect. What the PP is expected to add is the administrative and enforcement architecture, including how companies report compliance, how inspections are conducted, and what procedural remedies are available to employees who experience violations.
Companies waiting for the PP before updating their employment documentation are misreading the compliance obligation. The update obligation exists now, derived from the parent law.
The Compliance Check Every Employer Should Complete
For any company operating in Indonesia that has not formally reviewed its employment documentation since July 2024, the minimum compliance review involves:
- Confirming that the Company Regulation reflects the three-month mandatory and conditional six-month maternity leave structure with the correct salary schedule
- Confirming that the Company Regulation or employment contracts reflect the 40-day paternity leave entitlement under Article 6 of UU KIA
- Verifying that the workplace includes a compliant lactation room or that a compliant arrangement is in place for employees returning from maternity leave
- Verifying that payroll configuration correctly models the 75 percent rate for months five and six of extended maternity leave as a separate category
- Confirming that the termination review process includes a check for maternity leave status before any termination decision is finalized
XPND’s HR administration and employment compliance team assists companies with Company Regulation drafting and updates, employment contract review, and payroll structure configuration under the current Indonesian employment law framework, including UU KIA and the supporting regulatory changes that have taken effect since 2024.
Reach out to XPND’s HR compliance team to review your current employment documentation against UU 4/2024 obligations and confirm your company regulations are updated before a dispute brings the gap to the surface.
