Govt studying possibility of enacting a Domestic Workers Act

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is studying the possibility of enacting a standalone Act that governs domestic workers, says M. Kulasegaran (pic).

The Human Resources Minister said such an Act would guarantee aspects like their working hours, holidays, salaries and insurance, among other things.

"These are some of the things we have in mind.

"The standalone act will take a long time to come. One year or two years, " he said during a question-and-answer session at a national conference on anti-trafficking persons on Monday (Aug 5).

He said that for now, they would make the necessary amendments to the Employment Act to spell out certain protections for domestic workers in the country.

Currently, domestic workers are governed under the Employment Act.

Organisations such as Tenaganita have said that it doesn't cover the benefits or offer full protection to domestic workers, and only looks at their wages.