HR Ministry to upload domestic workers employment contract soon

 

The Human Resources Ministry will upload a 17-page Contract of Employment onto its website soon while awaiting 10,000 Indonesian domestic workers to be processed for entry after the Hari Raya festivities, said its minister M Saravanan.

The contract makes up Appendix D of the recently inked memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the “Employment and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Malaysia”, which lists the rights and responsibilities of the employer and domestic worker respectively.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Saravanan said the contract will be made available for the comprehension of potential employers.

However, he said the MOU in its entirety will not be made available to the public as he had already shared key elements of the agreement with the public.

Although the National Action Plan on Forced Labour (NAPFL) (2021-2025) aimed for transparency by making such MOU documents public, Saravanan reasoned that the manner by which the contents of a document were made public was subjective.

“I don’t see why the whole document must be made public,” he added.

However, one of the strategic goals of the NAPFL aims for an increase in transparency by way of public access to these bilateral agreements and provisions that protect migrant workers from forced labour.

The NAPFL that was launched by Saravanan in November last year was a reflection of Malaysia’s commitment to protect and safeguard the welfare of all workers, including foreign migrant workers.

Stricter rules

However, Malaysiakini, having sighted the MOU document on April 7, had disclosed some of the stricter provisions featured in the new agreement including timely payment of wages, minimum hours of rest and a strict division of tasks that fell under three separate job titles.

Saravanan told a press conference held at HRD Corp yesterday that 10,000 domestic workers from Indonesia would be processed through an online one-channel system that was introduced in the MOU between the two countries.

However, he said employers could only expect the workers to arrive after Hari Raya Aidilfitri as they would be reluctant to leave home before the festivities were over.

This was the same number of domestic workers scheduled to come to Malaysia as part of a pilot recruitment project in February this year.

Separately, Saravanan confirmed to Malaysiakini that the online portal that would link Malaysian employers in the recruitment process would be the Foreign Worker Centralised Management System provided by Bestinet Sdn Bhd.

He said he would meet the Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, to confirm this before initiating the linking process.

Saravanan also denied that the ministry had any links to the domestic worker recruitment portal featuring its logo and has vowed to investigate the MyOCS website. A check on the website shows it is now under maintenance.

The portal was leaked to be the domestic worker recruitment portal for the ministry, especially in the one-channel system process flow and even states so on the website.

Domestic workers from other countries

In a related development, Saravanan said he had already signed an MOU with Vietnam for the employment of their domestic workers by Malaysian employers and was in talks for the renewal of an agreement with India.

He said he was in talks with his counterparts in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh as well.

“I will visit Vietnam and Cambodia soon to discuss the hiring of their domestic workers,” he said.

When asked if the domestic worker MOU provisions from the agreement with Indonesia would be applied to other countries, Labour Department director-general Asri Rahman who was also present at the press conference said all workers would enjoy the same benefits.

“Whatever benefits agreed to in the MOU with Indonesian would apply to domestic workers from other countries,” he confirmed. - Mkini