‘SEVEN LABOUR LAWS TO BE AMENDED’
It is to further safeguard rights of workers, says minister
THE Human Resources Ministry is seeking to tighten and make changes to existing labour regulations and laws.
The laws include the 64-yearold Employment Act, which was legislated in 1955; the 60year-old Trade Unions Act which was legislated in 1959; and the 62-year-old Industrialisation Act, which was legislated in 1957.
Other laws which will see changes are the Minimum Standards
of Housing and Amenities Act 1990, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994.
Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said the move to amend the labour laws was to safeguard the rights of workers.
He said the proposed amendments and changes would involve seven labour-related legislations which would be tabled at the Dewan Rakyat’s sitting in July.
“The proposed legislative amendments would include a clause on workplace discrimination,” said Kulasegaran in a press conference here yesterday.
He said it would take some time for the laws to be amended as it involved detailed discussions with the relevant stakeholders.
Kulasegaran said the ministry was looking at legislating a standalone law to strengthen the protection of domestic workers.
He, however, said work on this standalone law was in the early stages.
Kulasegaran said other major proposed changes in the labour laws would be the provision to provide Social Security Organisation benefits to 1.4 million housewives nationwide.
He said there were also plans to beef up the ministry’s enforcement unit by roping in officers from other sections of the ministry.
Kulasegaran said the ministry was looking at reducing the number of raids conducted on foreign workers’ recruitment companies, adding that this would be done by allowing special compliance audits to be conducted voluntarily.
“This, however, was at the proposal stage but the audits should be conducted by an independent agency or an individual company, on all matters related to its human resources, such as the allocation of leave, wages and so on.
“When they have done the audits, they would have to send the reports to us as well as the company simultaneously,” said Kulasegaran.