Labour Dept to set up special unit handling migrant workers’ grievances, says Sim

The Star

A special unit will be set up under the Labour Department to handle complaints and grouses from migrant workers, says Steven Sim.  The Human Resources Minister said this is because the migrant workers situation is unique as they may not dare come forward to complain.  He told reporters after speaking at the Concorde Club meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday (May 9).  Read more at https://shorturl.at/rtJX5  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00I think one of the policy actions taken, especially by the Home Ministry, is to allow for RTK,

00:17is to allow for legalisation, which is why we encourage employers to come forward. And

00:22within KSUMA, we are looking at, for example, under the Manpower Department, we understand

00:31that sometimes handling of migrant workers' complaints and abuses is not easy. It is a

00:38very sensitive issue because migrant workers may not have the same standing when it comes

00:46to, let's say a local worker, when they report abuses, they can still go home. But a migrant

00:54worker, when they report abuses, for example, employers not renewing their licence or refusing

01:00to allow them to be legalised under the legalisation programme, if they report, they may not have

01:06a home to go to. So what we are trying to do here is to ensure, for example, within

01:11this ministry, within the Manpower Department, we are setting up a specialised unit. This

01:18is new. Within the Manpower Ministry, to deal with complaints and issues facing migrant

01:27workers. Because we know that sometimes they would require, for example, interpreters,

01:33they will require perhaps even a temporary shelter, they will require information and

01:40more awareness on their rights. If they come forward, they may not know how to get access

01:45to legal aid. So law is there. Enforcement of law is there. Special programmes like RTK

01:52is there. But we are also here assisting in that programme by setting up a special unit

01:58within the JTK, Manpower Department, to ensure that migrant workers who are facing these

02:07sort of problems can come forward and their grouses, their complaints, are dealt with

02:12at least humanely, according to their protection and rights. This unit has not been set up

02:22yet. Just before May, I had a discussion with a group of NGOs. The NGOs advocate for anti-human

02:36trafficking and smuggling issues. So one of the results of the discussion, one of the

02:46commitments that I have given to them is to look into the setting up of such units within

02:50JTK. Because this was from, among others, one of their complaints is that workers like

02:57this, whether they are legal or illegal, they have no recourse to justice, to the law. Mainly

03:04because their situation and their status is very different. Even if they are legal, it's

03:09very different from local workers. But as of now, of course we treat all workers with

03:15the same rights. But they have different needs, the context of their situation. So we want

03:21to have a special unit to deal with that context.

03:23Maybe you can share with us a bit about the internship. You were talking about the staff,

03:27the rewarding act for employers to get interns.

03:31Kusuma sees internship as a very important skills training platform. Because this is

03:39not only on-the-job skills training experience. But when we look at the data, we are looking

03:47at about 40% transition from internship to work in the same company. Of course there

03:56are others who work in different companies from where they intern. But at least from

04:01the records that we have, 40% of them transition from being an intern in that company to working

04:07full-time in the same company.

04:10Because of that, we have launched a programme called Ilham Kusuma, basically Incentive Latihan

04:16Amali Kusuma. It is an incentive to employers to provide structured and paid internship

04:24to students. We are looking at, at least this year, providing about 30,000 to 50,000 paid

04:32and structured internship opportunities via three key components.

04:36Number one, employers who employ interns will be eligible for double tax reduction for allowances

04:44they incur on the internship.

04:46Number two, we have also announced a RM30 million matching grant, especially to SMEs.

04:54When they provide structured and paid internship, the government will basically pay you to pay

05:01your interns.

05:03The third one is that we are now allowing employers with HRD Corp levy to use up to

05:1150% of their levy for paying their interns.

05:15So I think with these incentives and with these options, we are hoping to create about

05:2130,000 to 50,000 paid internship opportunities because we see internship as a form of very

05:27effective skills training.

05:40Thank you.

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