What is the actual condition of the harsh labor environment in Malaysia?

Malaysia is actively attracting foreign companies, and indeed the country's economy is rapidly developing with this approach. However, the law concerning labor is insufficiently maintained, and it is said that it is a harsh working environment for migrant migrant workers from overseas, which accounts for about a quarter. The Atlantic of overseas media is closer to its actual situation as to what kind of situation it actually is.

Forced Labor in Malaysia's Electronics Industry - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/06/malaysia-forced-labor-electronics/563873/?single_page=true

The Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, has developed mainly through the invitation of foreign companies, and the security and political situation is stable. And it is said that migrant workers live in the center of success that built up the stable situation of Kuala Lumpur. Many of them dream of realizing better lives from Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Indonesia, India and come to Kuala Lumpur with a high willingness to work. The number of foreign workers living in Malaysia as of 2014 is estimated to be estimated at 1.8 million to 3.6 million.

Many of these workers believe that "Malaysia is a land where a rich life awaits" and imagine that "the street is filled with gold", but as soon as arrival in Kuala Lumpur, reality It is said to be pulled back to. David Welsh of the American Labor Union-Industry Union Conference (AFL-CIO) said, "Malaysia is also a serious area for forced labor and human rights abuses, and there is a fact that it can not be said that the working environment is not very well organized "Although economic development is remarkable, on the other hand, it says it has a big challenge.

According to a report published by Verité, a nonprofit organization dedicated to labor issues in 2014, as a result of investigating 400 migrant workers, at least 32% is forced to work contrary to their will It is said to be in a state that the working environment is very bad. In the same year's US State Department Trafficking of Employment Report (TIP), Malaysia is ranked as "Tier 3" with the lowest rating that is the same as that of North Korea and Iran, and even from a third party viewpoint, the labor situation is forced labor It is evaluated as being nearly as close as possible.

However, although Malaysia is at the writing level, we are working on improvement. Mr. Jodie Mitra, International Labor Organization, UN Labor Organization, said, "Malaysia's efforts to address trafficking in persons has been improved through strengthening of trafficking in persons, prosecution, and punishment," states I am clearly moving forward in a good direction. However, Mr. Mitra said the Malaysian government needs to take measures to enforce this regulation, as abusive labor practices of migrant workers that could be regarded as forced labor continue to exist . Mitra says that it should not be implemented in writing alone but in order to avoid a crisis situation.

The abusive response to migrant workers in Malaysia starts at the time of recruitment. When he came to Malaysia at the age of nineteen, Indonesian-born Nobitor Maubun paid 1,500 ringgit (about 41,000 yen) as an employment commission to the company currently working. This amount is very expensive for Mr. Maubun 's family, and parents have borrowed 15 years of repayment period as collateral to make Mr. Maubung' s employment fee, travel expenses and other costs . Mr. Maubun keeps track of his own living expenses so as not to delay the repayment, and keeps delivering.

Verité CEO Sean McDonald said, "Malaysia's employment fee system is structured to make the poorer pay a high fee," effectively saving workers over the long term It is pointed out that it binds to. Also, there are actual circumstances that many of our employers are collecting passports of workers to know that they are illegal and to prevent escape.

By ahmad bakri

And workers paid for employment fee and passport will be hired by the company and will receive salary as compensation for labor, but taking after taking a deduction such as tax etc. will be very tiny It is said that. Moreover, there is no description about deduction in employment contracts, so actual takeover amount is actually unknown until it is paid after being employed. Here, if you are dissatisfied with money, there is the possibility of leading to dismissal, like Mr. Maubun, paying high debts to the parents and paying a high employment fee for finding employment, Continuing workers are in a situation where there is no way other than following employers.

Nonetheless, workers who disapprove of jobs or quit an employment contract for any reason are rarely returned by passports, even though employment fees are not returned from companies. For this reason, migrant workers are treated as illegal residents because the work visa associated with the employer is invalid. Even if you find another employment place in this state and pay a high employment fee to get a job, there are cases where the risk that the authorities will be ordered to leave the country remains and there is a case of losing payment of expensive employment fees It is. And there are not many such illegal residents, it is said that it is estimated to be about one-third of all migrant workers in Malaysia.

However, the treatment of workers is not bad for Malaysia as a whole country. Mr. Sumita Shansini, a lawyer, said, "Since large companies and multinationals are undergoing external audits from domestic or other labor organizations in other countries, we firmly adhere to the Code of Conduct and collect unnecessary wages and passports We do not do something like that. "In fact, it is said that in Malaysia domestic small and medium enterprises whose monitoring functions are hardly working is actually suffering from workers.

Malaysia is not readily seen improvement, but a major change that it changes from unified Malay national organization (UMNO) who came to power for about 60 years from independence in May 2018 to opposition union such as Democratic Behavior Party (DAP) Occurred. At the time of article creation, there is no support from the public about the new system, but there is expectation that a worker protection system that has not been developed so far is expected, and the treatment of migrant workers The possibility of improvement is taking on reality.