Minister: Govt plans to amend Employment Act 1995 to protect domestic workers

Human Resource Minister M. Kulasegaran today said that the government has plans to amend the Employment Act 1955 in order to look after the welfare of domestic workers. He said the amendment will help address abuse cases involving maids working in Malaysia. “The amendment to the Employment Act 1955 will only work as a temporary mechanism to protect the maid, they will still need better protection,” he said. Kulasegaran added that the plans are still at the proposal stage and that it will require discussion with respective stakeholders to draft the amendments. “We are currently working on this to ensure the welfare of maids is guaranteed,” he said in a joint interview arranged to commemorate Pakatan Harapan’s first anniversary in power. Meanwhile, on a separate matter, Kulasegaran said it will be difficult to reduce the number of foreign workers in the country due to the overwhelming demand from new industries. “The new industries have said that they need more foreign workers as they have no local workers,” he said.