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'Foreign workers should be allowed to join unions'

Former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim thinks that foreign workers should be allowed to join trade unions because it will ultimately benefit all Malaysians.

“I think if they (foreign workers) join trade unions, their wages will rise.

“When their wages rise, there will be less incentive for employers looking for cheap labour to bring in thousands of labour from outside.

“If their (foreign workers) wages rise, I think it is good for all workers,” Sheriff said during a forum titled “Envisioning the Future: Malaysia Beyond GE14” in Bangsar yesterday.

He had earlier said that a major reason for low wages in Malaysia, especially at lower levels of employment, was due to an overdependence on cheap foreign labour.

Low wages at the lower levels of employment subsequently bring down the whole wage structure, he added.

“So that accounts for a major reason why disposable income is lower among the lower income group,” Sheriff, who is also a member of G25, said.

Prominent economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram, who was also a panellist at the forum, concurred with Sheriff on allowing foreign workers to join trade unions.

However, he does not believe many will be able to consider this idea seriously...

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