The Human Resources Ministry will amend or upgrade nine acts by end of this year, said its minister M. Kulasegaran.

He said the changes need to be made to raise the labour standards in Malaysia to be in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention, and because the current laws, including the Children and Young Persons Act (Employment) Act 1966, were outdated and overdue for change.

Other laws to be revised were Occupational Safety & Health Act 1994, Employment Act 1955, Sabah Labour Ordinance, Sarawak Labour Ordinance, Industrial Relations Act 1967, Trade Unions Act 1959, Minimum Standard of Housing & Amenities Act 1990, and Private Recruitment Agencies Act 1981.

“The ministry is currently studying the possible amendments, which would also take proposals from all related parties into consideration,” he told reporters after launching the World Day Against Child Labour 2018 in Putrajaya today.

Kulasegaran hoped to table the amendments to the nine laws in the next Parliament sitting in October.

On the Child Labour Act, he said he had instructed his officers to undertake stringent enforcement task against those who did not comply with labour regulations including recruiting children as workers.

“Between 2016 and 2018, there are five cases in relation to child labour and last year alone, two employers were fined RM2,000 each,” he said.

The minister admitted that a number of factors made child labours particularly in agriculture, plantation and rural areas were difficult to eliminate. 

“Therefore, regular enforcement is the key to ensure children are protected and to ensure no child is recruited as a labour,” he said.

Commenting on the misappropriation of the RM300 million fund belonging to Human Resources Development Fund, Kulasegaran said the full report on the matter would be completed by end of next month and necessary actions would be taken as suggested.

- Bernama