Labour group wants RCI to probe graft in migrant workers system

The Labour Law Reform Coalition (LLRC) has urged the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate corruption in the migrant worker management system.

LLRC co-chairperson Irene Xavier said this includes an RCI into companies in the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System, service providers, as well as foreign recruitment agencies.

“The investigation of the MACC against the officers of the human resources minister (V Sivakumar) is alarming.

“We need to adopt a holistic approach to address corruption in the system, no one should treat migrant workers as commodities and make profit out of it,” Irene (above) said in a press conference in conjunction with Labour Day at Armada Hotel in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. 

Also present were LLRC co-chairperson N Gopal Kishnam and North South Initiative director Adrian Pereira.

Issues ‘nothing new’

Meanwhile, Adrian admitted that issues pertaining to graft in the foreign labour recruitment system is “nothing new”.

Therefore, he stressed the importance of an RCI, especially after several groups of migrant workers have been left out in the cold, some stranded at the KLIA and not provided with jobs after arriving in the country.

The latest case involved over 200 Bangladeshi and Nepalese migrant workers stranded at a transit home for 40 days in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, and were not given work.

“While the government has made attempts to improve migrant workers recruitment processes over the past few years, we still see similar problems reoccurring.

“Fast forward to 2023, we find hundreds of migrant workers being brought into the country without job placements. This is shocking.

“The question is - which official or ministry is approving visas for these workers when jobs are not being allocated?” he asked.

North South Initiative director Adrian Pereira

Adrian also echoed PSM and former Klang MP Charles Santiago’s calls for the government to declassify an independent special committee’s report on the management of foreign workers.

He urged the government to make the report, which was submitted in 2019 by the Special Committee on Foreign Worker Management, to be made public.

The special committee was chaired by former Court of Appeal judge Hishamuddin Yunus and was formed during Pakatan Harapan’s tenure in 2018.

In 2020, Hishamuddin said the report had been classified under the Official Secrets Act and “the committee members were disappointed as no reasons were given”.

LLRC's calls for the government to establish an RCI were among 10 demands made in a bid to improve the living conditions of workers in the country.

Among other demands include calls for the government to ensure employers fully comply with the minimum wage of RM1,500 and provide at least 25 percent salary increment to lon- serving staffers, and for the human resources minister to provide an exemption to allow migrant workers working in the country to set up a sector-wide trade union and hold union office.

Given the foreign workers’ vulnerable situation, Gopal asserted that union closed-shop arrangements should be stated in the memorandum of understanding between Malaysia and the country of origin.

“The government should also hold regular meetings with trade unions and migrant worker organisations on the implementation of the National Action Plan on Forced Labour, involve sectoral trade unions and migrant worker organisations in the efforts of eliminating forced labour,” he said. - Mkini