KUCHING (May 2): The Labour Law Reform Coalition has lauded the government for implementing the RM1,500 minimum wage but regretted that domestic workers were excluded.
Its chairman N. Gopal Kishnam thus urged the government to further amend the minimum wage order to include domestic workers.
“Today, workers in Malaysia are facing a huge challenge to attain a decent living wage, safer and healthier working environment because of a lack of bargaining power,” he said in a statement on Labour Day.
Gopal said Malaysia had a set of regressive and draconian labour laws inherited from the colonialists, which unreasonably restricted workers’ right to form unions of their own choice and right to strike.
He observed that the general population’s awareness of workers’ rights was low as the community did not have an effective popular labour education whether among labour groups or in the country’s education system.
“The widespread violation of the rights of migrant workers, particularly forced labour, can no longer be ignored by the labour movement.
“Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed many weaknesses of our social protection system including lack of investment in healthcare, food banks and unemployment insurance,” he pointed out.
To address these challenges, Gopal said Malaysia must strengthen its labour movement by promoting a culture of inclusiveness and co-operation among trade unions, workers’ organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and global partners.
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