Foreign labourers working at a construction site in Kuala Lumpur. - Filepic
PETALING JAYA: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) welcomed the government’s move to stop the intake of new migrant workers, saying this was what the stakeholders have been pushing for.
PSM central committee member, Rani Rasiah, however, hoped that the decision was based on “well-considered” grounds and acceptance of the arguments against the intake.
“Hopefully it’s not merely a reaction to the widespread opposition to it," she said noting that politicians had made remarks such as ‘get Malaysian workers to fill the 3D (dangerous, difficult and dirty) vacancies’, and ‘if employers need workers, they should apply to the MEF, the FMM and the MTUC.’
Rani, who is on the PSM Migrant desk, said it was untrue that all migrant workers were working in the 3D sectors, as half of them are in manufacturing and services.
She added that it was also untrue that Malaysian workers shunned 3D jobs as more than 300,000 worked in such jobs in Singapore for the extra income.
Rani said the absence of a comprehensive policy on the intake and management of migrant workers, and differences of wages between migrants and locals, resulted in employers hiring migrant workers to replace Malaysians.
“The denial of the right to redress worsens the situation as it makes migrant workers easier to bully,” she said in a statement.
Rani added that if the government was serious about attracting Malaysian workers to the workforce, it must raise wages to a more realistic level or complement low wages with a social wage, such as subsidised housing.
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