A coalition of domestic workers’ associations in Malaysia called on the government to review its latest version of the law on employment in the country.
The group, Kearah 189 Coalition, said in a statement that even as it welcomes amendments to the Employment Act of 1955, it notes as “ironic” the failure to omit a number of sections of the law that allegedly discriminate against domestic employees “and keeps them in slave-like conditions.”
“These sections outrightly state that domestic employees are exempted from the hours of work, overtime compensation, weekly rest day, maternity leave, annual leave, paid sick leave to name a few,” said Irene Xavier of the Kearah189 Coalition.
She said that the law as such “allows for systemic abuse against domestic employees” who can now be subjected to long working hours, get no weekly rest day or overtime pay, and will have no maternity, lay off or termination benefits.
“This means that Malaysian law deliberately pushes domestic workers to conditions of forced labor despite having ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Forced Labour Convention,” read the coalition’s statement.
The amendment to the Act was supposed to take effect on September 1 but it was postponed to January 1 following requests from employers and industries who said they needed more time as most companies were still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar it is entirely up to the employers whether or not to implement the system.
“With the flexible working hours amendment to the Employment Act 1955, it just becomes a legal form of incentive,” the minister said in a statement, adding that “there is no compulsion” and the law “is meant to be an improvement to the system and the way we work in this country.”
In a statement, Kearah189 Coalition urged the minister to remove conditions in the law that are prejudicial against domestic employees, who are almost all women.
“We would also like to draw the minister’s attention to the fact that this is in violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which the Malaysian government has ratified,” said Xavier.
She said that failure to remove the “discriminatory clauses” could mean that the government “doesn’t care enough about women workers who end up being subjected to violence because of the precarious nature of their work.”
Xavier warned that it would also signal the lack of political will of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration.
