The Human Resources Ministry’s “ill-conceived and brutal” policies, including the approval of more foreign workers, are causing Malaysian workers to “suffer” on depressed wages.

mtuc cawp water tariff pc 171006 syed sharir In levelling the charge, Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) president Syed Shahrir Syed Mohamud (right) also challenged the human resources minister to a public debate about the way the government is treating local workers.

“The government should come clean with details as to how this scheme of slave labour is working and who the beneficiaries are - directly and indirectly,” he said in a statement today.

“We can fill a stadium with Malaysians of all walks of life (who will) decide…on the actions of the government, vis-à-vis the treatment of Malaysian workers.”

Syed Shahrir said that importing labour at depressed wages is “abuse” and will only worsen the situation as locals would not be willing to work for such wages.

dr s subramaniam Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam announced last week that the government had approved 100,000 applications from new foreign workers since last October, as a response to the labour shortage in the manufacturing sector.

 “(The approval) smacks of a wholly irresponsible action by the government, (who) in the same breath talks about reducing the number of foreign workers,” Syed Shahrir said.

Currently, there are about 1.8 million approved foreign workers in the country.