Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
13 July 2018. Putrajaya- Director General of Labour Ybhg Datuk Mohd Jeffrey convened the 2nd meeting with the Management of Zoological Society and MTUC together with the in-house Union to resolve the 18 year pending housing for workers of Zoo Negara.
MTUC was represented by the Secretary General Bro J Solomon, Bro A Sivananthan and Bro S Nadarajan General Council Members of MTUC while the KPPMZS was represented by the President Bro R Maran, Hon Secretary Bro L
Gunasegar And Committee Member Bro Hazrul Izwan.
The representatives from MOF, Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources, ROS, JPP and other officials from Labour Department also participated in the meeting at the request of the DG since they are related Departments to the issue.
To recap the issue the Government has granted RM1.6 million in 2001 to build quarters for Workers but till to date the quarters were not found to be built. The excuse provided by the management was that there was no gazetted land available etc.
MTUC was curious as to how the government extended the fund in 2001 when the land was not gazetted then. It gives rise to the fact that the then government did not take any meaningful effort to ensure that the money was spent for the intended purpose despite a lapse of 18 long years.
The management’s claim was that the architect who carried out the documentation in 2014 estimated RM 1.2 million as the cost of the 7 proposed S/Storey Terrace units and in 2016 the gazetted land they got was costly and therefore they could not proceed.
The management could not remember the estimated cost in 2016 when querried.
What was the Zoological Management, MOF and Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources was doing from 2001 to 2018 and what happened to the fund allocated…….More to follow.
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