Jomo: Gov't should regulate working hours of migrant workers

The government must regulate the working hours of migrant workers as part of the efforts to reduce their impact which includes suppressing the wages of Malaysians, said economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram.

He said the influx of migrant workers over the years has suppressed wages with their willingness to work longer hours at lower pay.

"For decades now, we have a situation where the large presence of foreign workers is suppressing the wages of Malaysian workers.

"Because it's always so easy to get foreigners to do twice as much work as a Malaysian for less money," he said at a press conference on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report 2019 at Mercu UEM in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The former UN assistant secretary-general for economic development cited an example of how Nepali security guards could be made to work 12-hour shifts seven days a week or more than 80 hours a week.

Jomo pointed out that this was double the number of hours for a Malaysian security guard.

"So, unless you have a situation where you actively regulate the migrant workers, I think we are going to have a situation where Malaysian workers are suffering (from suppressed wages) as an indirect impact of their presence," he said.

Jomo, who is a senior visiting fellow at Khazanah Research Institute (KRI), cited the think-tank's latest study which suggested that existing demarcations of "B40, M40 and T20" household income levels should be readjusted to represent the lowest 20 percent, middle 50 percent and top 30 percent of households.

Unlike current demarcations that placed all households earning below RM3,000 in the B40 category, KRI's researchers proposed a new calculation that placed the bottom 20 percent as households with an income of below RM1,196.

The analysis of income and consumption also identified a smaller number of households as being able to consume a diverse range of goods with minimal tradeoffs at an equivalised income of above RM3,015.

"So, the term B40 has been used arbitrarily (when) you can say that around 70 percent of the population are not living an easy life," he said.

'Gov't should play a role in palm oil research and development'

On a separate matter, Jomo also urged the government to play a role in ensuring that plantation companies would focus on research and development of palm oil-based products.

He said the government should identify ways to create more demand for palm oil-based products, including the production of biodiesel.

"We have to be very determined, and the research for it should have been done three decades ago.

"If you look at many of the developments which are taking place, they are not happening in Malaysia but places like Indonesia and so on," he stressed.

In urging Malaysia to take the lead in palm oil research, Jomo noted that there could be a "free rider" culture where one company's breakthrough would be copied by others.

"This is where the role of government becomes important.

"You should impose a higher tax on the companies that only copy research by others and put more effort into research and development," he stressed. - Mkini