Family Frontier urges right to work policy revamp for foreign spouses

 

Putrajaya should revamp the way it treats foreign spouses of Malaysians in terms of their right to employment, says Family Frontier.

Family Frontier, the umbrella body of the Foreign Spouses Support Group, said the existing policy discourages foreign spouses from getting employment and this disproportionately affects women.

"As foreign spouses of Malaysians holding a spouse visa, their visas have the statement 'prohibited from all forms of employment’ stamped across their Long-Term Social Visit Pass, also referred to as a spouse visa.

"Upon seeing this statement, employers are reluctant to hire non-citizen spouses, albeit the Department of Immigration states that an endorsement to work can be obtained after having secured an offer from the employer," it said in a statement.

Family Frontier said a survey it conducted found 75 percent of non-citizen spouses of Malaysians possess a Bachelor's degree or higher but 49 percent of them remain unemployed.

"The endorsement to work is also highly restrictive, whereby it is tied to the validity of the visa (which may require frequent renewals), restricted to one state within the country, and non-citizen spouses are unable to acquire professional licenses until Permanent Residence is obtained.

"Based on the lived realities gathered by Family Frontiers, it is evident that the lack of economic rights among spouses has a disproportionate impact on women.

"Women are made to wholly depend on their spouses—including them being at the mercy of their spouses for official permission to work and the inability for them to open individual bank accounts—which places them in situations of harm and violence," it said.

Seek employment overseas

It added that in situations where foreign spouses are forced to seek employment overseas, it also forces Malaysian women to move overseas, further contributing to the brain drain. This can also cause Malaysian women to be separated from their foreign spouse, which leads to an unequal burden of care.

"These economic inequalities affect the lives and the safety and security of women and children in binational families, the repercussions of which have been greatly exacerbated during the pandemic, putting women at peak vulnerability and insecurity, including domestic violence," it said.

Family Frontier urged the government to do away with the statement of employment prohibition on spouses and to extend labour law protection to them.

It added that they should also be allowed to open an individual bank account.

"With over 200,000 Malaysian binational families living in Malaysia, it is time we treated these families with the dignity they deserve.

"By allowing non-citizen spouses to work without restrictions, the government will strengthen Malaysia’s economy, protect families of Malaysians and reverse the brain-drain of talented professionals," it said.

Mothers under the Family Frontiers banner last year successfully mounted a constitutional challenge against the government to grant citizenship to their children.

Institute labour reforms

Previously, children born to a Malaysian mother and their foreign husband were not granted automatic citizenship even though it is given to the children of Malaysian fathers with a foreign wife.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC), in conjunction with labour day tomorrow, urged the government to institute labour reforms.

"Malaysia has yet to ratify a number of protocols under the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

"There are also protocols such as convention 98 which is the right to unionise and collective agreement," said MTUC secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor.

Kamarul Baharin Mansor

He added the government should also do away with the contract system, particularly for cleaners and security guards, which have been a source of exploitation.

On a separate matter, the MTUC thanked the government for gazetting the new minimum wage of RM1,500. - Mkini