COMMENT | For system to work, big stick must be wielded

COMMENT | The late Chu Ah Ngee ran his aggregator and pre-mix business on a large piece of land in Semenyih, Selangor. Every Chinese New Year, it was party time for the staff and his customers.

Beers flowed, a roast pig was on the pit, and a feast was being prepared in a tent. For his Muslim workers, he would have satay, biryani and other halal food.

There were no workers’ union and he personally attended to their grouses. When an employee had a happy or even a sad occasion, he would be there to help. He was generous to the hilt and there was not a dry eye in the factory when he passed away in 2016.

His workers were housed in living quarters complete with running water and electricity. 

I gathered his management style during our close association, and with those in mind, these were some of the questions I posed in my column “Health before wealth – the way forward” on Nov 28:

• If an employer cannot provide living conditions which meet basic standards of what would be called “decent”, how does he expect his workers to be productive to an anticipated level?
• How do employers sleep in their air-conditioned bungalows knowing well that the worker whose efforts entitled to him to that lifestyle is sleeping in a ramshackle on the construction site?

One would have expected some positive response from those calling themselves “corporate citizens” holding mock-cheques worth millions with ministers.

Sad to say, no answers were forthcoming – not even from employers or their umbrella bodies, the association for small and medium industries and manufacturers’ guild. All we got was yet another appeal from the Malaysian Employers’ Federation.

Its president Syed Hussain Syed Husman asked for more time to comply with the Workers' Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1900 (Act 446), saying that the government should take into account the current situation and to not penalise employers for failing to comply with the Act.

How much more time do they need? In May, the government gave employers until Aug 31 - more than three months to comply with the Act. Wasn’t any heed paid? Why seek reprieve after being caught when so much could have been done since May?

Last Thursday, after a raid on a foreign workers’ hostel owned by a furniture factory in Muar, a Labour Department director said: “The hostel is like a barn... with thin plywood bunk beds, much like boxes stacked in tiers, with no mattresses, putting the workers in a very uncomfortable situation.”

The hostel was found to be very poorly managed, with many clogged or non-functional toilets with 321 foreign workers - from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan sharing rooms packed like sardines.

Yesterday’s raid on a glove factory in Kajang was described as “slavery” and showed total disregard for the welfare, well-being and safety of workers.

Astro Awani quoted Human Resources Minister M Saravanan who had joined the raid as saying: “I cannot believe such places exist in Malaysia and I’m not sure how they could live in such filthy and terrible conditions. I call this ‘modern slavery’ and employers need to ensure their workers' welfare is protected.”

Then the finger-pointing started. Saravanan pointed at the local government (in this case, the Kajang Municipal Council) which, he said, should have already identified such places. If the Labour Department had not come, perhaps no one would have known about this place, he said.

No, Mr Minister, over the months, NGOs have raised the issue of workers' living conditions and providing them with documentation. The media has regularly highlighted the conditions in which foreign workers are accommodated.

Besides, visits to factories in industrial zones will certainly be helpful. While the focus seems to be on factories, what about those in the construction sector? The plywood structures that we see when driving past surely do not pass the standards.

Wasn’t Saravanan the same person who, on Dec 3, revealed a startling statistic which he described as “very worrying”? 

At a media conference, he said that some 91.1 percent or 1.6 million foreign workers in the country are provided with accommodation that does not comply with the provisions of the Act.

Effectively, nine out of 10 foreign workers in Malaysia are housed in quarters that do not meet the minimum standards of living set out under the Act. 

Videos circulating on social media depicting overcrowded living quarters and unsanitary conditions seem to substantiate the statistic.

At the same media conference, he said the government only received applications for the certificate of accommodation for 143,587 foreign workers, or 8.83 percent of the 1.6 million foreign workers in Malaysia as of Oct 31.

What is so difficult in identifying and cracking down the remaining 91.17 percent? If the department has a list of those who applied, then it will be obvious that those not on the list had not applied. So, why aren’t the department officials moving?

R NADESWARAN says the lack of enforcement of laws is a perennial problem and the powers-that-be should put their foot down without any form of favouritism or “tutup satu mata”. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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