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?
Contractors are no longer allowed to lump safety and health management items
together with other expenditures as practised before.
<p>"It will come as a separate item in the Bill of Quantities and the contractors
will have to mention a specific figure for safety and health," he said
after opening a seminar on sustainable construction organised by the Construction
Industry Development Board (CIDB) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.</p>
<p>A Bill of Quantities is used as a form of cost planning and mapping to monitor
and control the construction cost during the execution or post-contract period
of construction.</p>
<p>The minister said he had directed the Public Works Department to ensure that
a clause on health and safety management be incorporated in tender documents.</p>
<p>He said previously the item for construction safety in the Bill of Quantities
was either missing or poorly specified. This means contractors either under-price
site safety activity or never price it at all.</p>
<p>Malaysian construction industry had the highest accident rates especially on
fatal accidents compared with other industries.</p>
<p>Poor working environment, lack of safety precautions at the work site, poor
construction techniques, poor knowledge of usage of modern or high- tech equipment
and large number of unskilled foreign workers who were not familiar with demand
of industries had contributed to accidents at work sites.</p>
<p>The shortage of enforcement officers and outdated rules and regulations also
made enforcement difficult.</p>
<p>Samy Vellu also said Grade G7 contractors must be certified with ISO 9001 by
the end of 2008.</p>
<p>Failure to do so would mean contractors would not be accredited by CIDB and
not be allowed to tender for government projects.
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com