Malaysia's HR ministry to discuss Employment Act amendments in July sitting

Malaysia's Human Resources Ministry is looking to amend labour regulations and laws, such as the Employment Act, the Trade Unions Act, the Industrialisation Act, the Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

This was reported by New Straits Times, which was cited by Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran on Facebook. In the report, he was quoted as saying the proposed amendments would involve seven pieces of labour related legislation, which would be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat’s July sitting.

"The proposed legislative amendments would also include a clause on workplace discrimination," he said, adding that the changes were meant to safeguard the rights of workers better.

Among the changes on the table, Minister Kulasegaran said a provision for Social Security Organisation (Socso) to benefit 1.4 million housewives was to be discussed. There are also plans to strengthen the ministry’s enforcement unit, by roping in officers from other sections of the ministry.

Additionally, he said the ministry was looking to reduce the number of raids conducted on foreign workers recruitment companies, by allowing special compliance audits to be conducted voluntarily.

"This is still at the proposal stage, but the audits should be conducted by an independent agency by the individual company to audit all matters related to its human resources, such as the allocation of leave, wages and so on," he was quoted saying.

The ministry was also looking to legislate a standalone law to further strengthen the protection of domestic workers. However, work on this standalone law was still in the early stages.

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Meanwhile, Minister Kulasegaran has launched a new mobile application, called Labour Market Information Gateway (LMI Gateway) to provide access to information on Malaysia's labour market.

Reported by Bernama, he said the app will benefit policy makers, employers, employees, job-seekers, researchers, academicians and investors. In the long-run, the objective is to make it the focal reference for labour market information nationally and internationally.

Photo / StockUnlimited