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?
Sharon Bentley
KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Sosialis Malaysia treasurer Sivarajan Arumugam has called for a revamp of labour laws in the country following an International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) report that he said “has put our country to shame.”
Malaysia is among the worst countries in the world to work in, according to ITUC’s Global Rights Index of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Ranking the best countries as 1 and the worst as 5, Malaysia was ranked 5 alongside Bangladesh, China, the Philippines and 20 other countries.
Three NGOs, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas (JERIT) and Selangor Friends of Women (PSWS) have joined forces to demand that the government attend to the issue of labour rights in Malaysia.
“The government should answer to this,” demanded Irene Xavier, President of PSWS at a press conference.
“This is an international report and the results have been made public. The government needs to answer to the report,” said Sivarajan.
Besides advocating laws concerning human and trade union rights, the ITUC conducts surveys in 161 countries to evaluate the standard of universal human and trade union rights by addressing civil rights, the right to establish or join a trade union, the right to organise trade union activities, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.
“The government is very anti-union and the ITUC studies confirm this,” said Xavier.
“The migrant workers will be fired if they join a union. Even locals are being threatened for joining a union.
“In our laws, there are a lot of conflicts. We have a lot of legislation in place, but they are only on paper and can’t be translated into practice.”
Factory workers coalition coordinator for JERIT, Sivaranjani Manickam, said Malaysia’s current labour and employment laws are contradictory.
“For example, migrant workers are subject to the laws under the Human Resource Ministry but the reality is that they are also affected by the Immigration Department’s contradicting laws.
“This causes problems to the migrant workers when it comes to managing their permits in Malaysia,” said Sivaranjani.
Xavier said, “The government has no interest to protect workers in Malaysia. They don’t care about the labourers, they only care about the employers.
“If the employers lodge complaints about the workers, quick action will be taken. The government doesn’t care about the people who voted for them.”
The newly formed coalition plans to demand the following rights for all workers: living wage for all employees, decent work within reasonable working hours, putting a stop to the victimisation of trade union leaders, automatic establishment of unions, worker retrenchment fund, health and safety work measures including compensation and rehabilitation, the establishment of a special body to deal with work issues and migrant workers’ welfare under the Human Resource Ministry, putting a stop to the amendment of labour laws and the revamp of labour laws according to universal labour rights and standards.
“The existing laws that are supposed to protect our rights don’t protect us; so the current laws have to be revamped,” said Sivarajan.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
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