The foreign labour laws in the country tend to favour the employers rather than the employees, says Senai state assemblyperson Wong Shu Qi.

Wong said that the current laws incline more towards the importance of employers rather than the basic rights and affairs of the workers which should be taken more seriously to avoid any conflicts.

“If this issue is not handled properly, it is possible for it to lead to conflicts which would involve local workers as well,” said the Johor DAP policy director.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Wong asked for the Johor state government to form a special department to handle the exploitation of migrant workers.

“The incident between the foreign workers and employers in Kulai, Gerisik (Muar), and Segamat raises doubts when there is no serious action taken by the state government to solve this problem,” said Puah.
 
Also present were Bukit Batu assemblyperson Jimmy Puah and Parit Yaani assemblyperson Aminul Huda Hassan.

Earlier in the day, Puah had raised the question of the JCY riots which happened on August 26 during the question and answer session at the state assembly.

The PKR lawmaker’s queries were then rebutted by Kahang assemblyperson Vidyanathan Ramanadhan who also is state exco for unity and human resource, who said that the current laws were sufficient to deal with issues of such.

Puah also questioned if the state government has taken into account the role of Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) in handling of the issue as MTUC has a lot of experience in these matters and plays an important role in issues regarding the welfare and complaints of workers.