Introduce laws to provide greater social protection for workers, govt urged

 

In conjunction with the Labour Day celebration tomorrow, the Social Protection Contributors Advisory Association Malaysia (SPCAAM) has urged the government to immediately introduce legislation that would provide greater social protection for Malaysian workers.

Its international labour adviser Callistus Antony D'Angelus said the protection should include unemployment insurance and benefits, greater trade union protection and rights, and tighter laws governing the termination of employment.

He asserted that there must be serious consequences for senior management and directors of companies who breach the country’s labour laws.

“(Prime Minister) Anwar (Ibrahim) has correctly pointed out that corruption has resulted in the economy being controlled by a select group of uber-capitalists. This has prevented the dynamic nature of a fair and equitable form of capitalism from flourishing.

“The poor are getting poorer, the middle class is being pushed into poverty, and the one percent is getting richer and robbing the common people of Malaysia.

“Corruption benefits these robber barons, which include large corporations and foreign multinationals,” D'Angelus said in a statement today.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim

It is an embarrassment, he added, that Malaysian workers have been deliberately marginalised over the years, through systemic forms of suppression of their rights and the continued denial of a fair share of the economic spoils of the nation’s economic success and growth.

However, for the first time in decades, there is light at the end of the tunnel to restore balance and equity in the country’s socio-economic trajectory.

“Anwar’s reformation plan, Malaysia Madani, appropriately calls out the effects of economic inequality which has been caused by years of neglect, institutionalised corruption, inappropriate policies and a lack of proper governance.

“He has identified the issues, called them out without fear or favour, and given the appropriate verbal assurances to the Malaysian people,” he said, adding that the time is now to act to transform the country for the benefit of the people, not just the corrupt.

Meanwhile, he said the percentage of Malaysians living below the national poverty line of RM2,208 (approximately US$11 per person per day) was 8.4 percent. This is according to data from the World Bank in 2020.

“A question needs to be asked as to whether a household can sustain a decent standard of living, which is a basic human right, on RM2,208 per month, especially in the bigger cities.

“Clearly, the answer is in the negative. This effectively means that the incidence of poverty in the country is higher than the data suggests.” - Mkini