Govt found 49 workers' accommodation unfit for habitation - Saravanan

 

PARLIAMENT | The government has found 49 workers’ hostels “unfit for human habitation” and instructed for close to 3,000 workers to be shifted to decent quarters, said Human Resources Minister M Saravanan.

“Forty-nine instructions were issued for the employers and centre labour quarters (CLQ) who owned dirty accommodation that was unfit for human habitation to transfer their staff to temporary quarters until the conditions at these hostels were improved. This involved 2,942 workers,” Saravanan (above) said.

The instruction was issued under the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990 (Act 446), which stipulates that staff would be transferred to a temporary accommodation if the initial accommodation is found to be less than decent.

The temporary accommodation encompasses centralised labour quarters that have been certified by the Labour Department, as well as hotels registered under Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry.

“As of Aug 24, a total of 23,993 employers and 129,668 staff quarters have been inspected. This covered the accommodation for 804,204 migrant workers and close to 1.2 million local workers,” Saravanan told Dewan Rakyat while winding up on the Royal Address.

“A total of 940 investigation papers were opened and 618 compounds were issued on various wrongdoings,” he said.

Human Resource Ministry officers and Socso officials check out a foreign workers' living quarters

Saravanan said local authorities have been empowered to assist in the enforcement of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 and 250 compounds worth a total of RM2.2 million in fines have been issued up until now.

“These cover wrongdoings such as failure to comply with building capacity, operating without permission, failure to provide entry and exit route and non-adherence to social distancing,” he said.

Act 446 makes it compulsory for employers to provide accommodation for all foreign workers they hire, with the exception of domestic helpers.

As the country declared the months-long emergency, the government gazetted the Emergency Ordinance (Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities) 2021, which outlined stiffer penalties against employers who failed to comply with the law, he said.

The ordinance continues to empower the director-general of the Labour Department to instruct owners of living quarters for workers to replace, change or upgrade accommodation facilities and transfer the workers to temporary accommodations in the meantime. - Mkini