Human Resources Ministry drafting policy to ensure social security for gig workers

BUTTERWORTH - The Human Resources Ministry (MOHR) is drafting a policy to provide social security for gig economy workers involved in e-hailing services so that they are not discriminated against by their employers.

Its minister, V. Sivakumar said MOHR is formulating the policy at the ministerial level and expects to receive guidelines on the matter from his officials in the next two weeks.

"The ministry is drafting a policy to see how the government can help so that this group will not be discriminated against by their employers, as well as provide social protection to them,” he told reporters after officiating the closing ceremony of the MYFutureJobs Career and Penang Housewife Social Security Scheme Carnival 2023, here, today.

He said the ministry did not reject a proposal to enact an act involving e-hailing workers, however, this will take a long time.

He added that the government, for now, will create a policy first and then study in detail the need for drafting the special act.

Asked for his opinion on employers' complaints regarding the difficulty of achieving a ratio of 80:20 for local and foreign labour, Sivakumar said employers need to offer attractive facilities in addition to increasing wages.

He said the current statistics show that more than 1.18 million Malaysians are working in Singapore while overall 1.8 million Malaysians are working in the region and, as such, employers need to look into this matter as this is a sign that we are not short of manpower.

"We have workers but due to certain issues in terms of wages and other facilities, they prefer to work in neighbouring countries. We need to increase our salary scale even though we know it will increase our costs.

"We need to look into this matter seriously in the long term. Employers should not be pegged to a minimum salary of RM1,500 but they also need to look at other facilities and obligations so that our children do not migrate," he said.

Meanwhile, he added the Career Carnival in Penang saw the participation of 56 employers who interviewed candidates to fill 7,500 job vacancies offering a monthly salary of up to RM9,500.

Some of the employers who participated were Flextronic Technology (Penang) Sdn Bhd, Osram Opto Semiconductors (M) Sdn Bhd, Maybank Berhad, SAM Engineering & Equipment (M) Berhad, Micron Technology, Robert Bosch (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Inari Amerton Berhad, AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtecnik (M) Sdn Bhd as well as others from various sectors.

"As of 11.30am today, a total of 552 people found jobs here (carnival),” he added. - BERNAMA