PARLIAMENT The bill on the Employees’ Insurance Scheme (EIS) is expected to be tabled at the next sitting of the Dewan Rakyat.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Ismail Abd Muttalib confirmed that the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) had, on Jan 9 this year, approved papers on the proposal for the scheme and that these would be presented to the cabinet soon.

“The draft bill on the EIS has been formulated and will be tabled in the next parliamentary sitting and will hopefully be implemented in 2018, insyaAllah,” Ismail told the House today.

The scheme would not only benefit employees but employers as well, said the deputy minister, and was aimed to assist workers who have been laid off.

“The Human Resources Ministry is finalising the suggestion on the implementation of the scheme for it to be approved by the government soon.

“This is our main focus and the bill on the EIS is expected to be tabled in this year’s parliamentary session itself,” Ismail said.

Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid (PKR-Kuala Langat), who had asked the human resources minister to state the steps taken to hasten the EIS, expressed relief that the scheme would finally be tabled.

However, Abdullah Sani said, countries such as Thailand and Vietnam have long implemented such a scheme, in 2004 and 2009 respectively.

“These countries are better than the United Kingdom in ensuring that workers can be assisted with this scheme,” he pointed out.

Ismail, meanwhile, said that more than 70 countries were referred to – among them France, Japan, Mongolia and Thailand – in the plan to implement the EIS in the country.

With more than 30,000 workers who have been laid off, the deputy minister stressed that the scheme would be all the more beneficial.

“Let us support this scheme. There is no reason for any quarter to reject this scheme.

The Human Resources Ministry has consistently been urged to expedite the implementation of the EIS, which was mooted back in 2009.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) had argued that the scheme was required immediately because it will help retrenched workers while they were in between jobs.

PSM has for long sought the implementation of a Worker's Retrenchment Fund, similar to the EIS, and hoped that the party's ideas could be incorporated into the EIS.