LETTER | Time to review the contract for labour

LETTER | The statement by the Malaysian police that fewer than 10 cases of forced labour discovered so far this year, compared to 62 cases last year, does reveal the whole story of forced labour in Malaysia that has its roots and legitimacy in the current employment law.

This comes in the wake of US sanctions being applied against several companies in our country over allegations of modern-day slavery.

According to Azry Akmar, an assistant commissioner of police, most cases take place “because of the lack of knowledge by the company owners (on issues of forced labour) and the companies neglecting to produce a better condition for workers to work in”.

The issues found included abuse of vulnerability, workers’ restriction of movement, retention of identity documents and withholding of wages, Azry said.

The above-mentioned issues are not something that has been happening for the past two years. These have been practised over the years. For example, employers retaining the identity documents of foreign workers has been a practice all the while.

These cases have only taken a serious turn in the past two years due to sanctions imposed by the US and Canada that had forced the Malaysian authorities to investigate such widespread abuses.

The root cause of the current crisis can be traced to the time of the Barisan National government, where it destroyed the direct employment relationship between the principal, as the employer, and their workers, as employees, with the amendments to the Employment Act 1955 which came into effect in April 2012.

These amendments were bulldozed through in Parliament in spite of vehement opposition by the Malaysian trade unions and civil society.

With the amendment, the contractor for labour will be the third party (or the middleman) who will come in between the now direct employment relationship between the owner-operator of the trade or business (defined as the ‘principal’) and their worker-employee.

These amendments have resulted in widespread practice among principle organisations to recruit foreign workers through agents, without having direct responsibility for their well-being and rights.

We have basically violated the most fundamental ILO conventions on forced labour.

According to the ILO Forced Labour Convention 1930 (No 29), forced or compulsory labour is all work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily.

Therefore, the Association for Community and Dialogue (ACID) urges the Perikatan National government to review and re-amend the clause on contract for labour to ensure that the principal organisations take back the authority over workers under its premises, and are responsible for ensuring that their foreign workers are not from the international and national chain of forced labour.

RONALD BENJAMIN is the Secretary of the Association for Community and Dialogue.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.