Improve tender process, make companies respect workers' rights, govt told

 

A group that fights for the welfare of contract labourers today urged Putrajaya to tighten its tender awarding process, saying that hiring unscrupulous contractors contributes to the continuous cycle of workers' abuse.

The Government Contract Workers' Network (JPKK) also called for the government to include additional conditions in their contract agreements to compel companies to protect their employees' rights.

JPKK national coordinator Danial Hakeem told a virtual press conference this afternoon that the government should blacklist companies that are found to subcontract their jobs to others and bar politically linked contractors from participating in the tender process.

"Our second suggestion is that the government should lower the security bond (for government contracts) to only between RM200,000 and RM300,000. This is to prevent tenders from being monopolised by big companies alone.

"The security bond must also be forfeited in case contracted companies fail to pay their employees, and the money is used to reimburse the affected workers.

"JPKK would like to call on the government to include clauses on contract workers' rights in their agreement with contractors, this is to ensure that their rights are respected.

"Should the companies fail to comply, then they are considered as breaking their terms of the contract and thus must be penalised and blacklisted," he said.

The group also proposed several other measures which they say can improve the government tender process, including the set up of an independent monitoring body that consists of government agencies and representatives from civil society.

They said the Official Secrets Act should also be repealed, adding that it had been used to protect information on government contracts which should be made public for transparency.

"We saw in the government project tendering system that is in place, there are many issues that contribute to problems which are faced by contract workers today.

"So our focus is to expose these weaknesses and give our recommendations to the government on how they can improve the system. And we hope the government will take them into consideration," said JPKK national secretary M Sivaranjani.

While the government forked out hundreds of millions in paying contractors to carry out sanitation and security jobs, the workers only get bits and pieces and their welfare neglected due to alleged corruption, the group said.

They said some companies are known to get government contracts over and over again despite having been reported for denying workers' rights, and claimed that these were due to corruption or political connections.

According to Sivaranjani, JPKK has so far lodged over 800 complaints to the Health Ministry and Education Ministry over issues related to contractors hired by the two ministries, but allegedly no action had been taken. - Mkini