KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia and Indonesia have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) today to improve treatment of domestic migrant workers after a meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
This comes after several abuse cases involving Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia.
“This MoU will ensure that every process and protection mechanism will be done comprehensively by all relevant parties, in accordance with the laws of the two countries,” Ismail Sabri was quoted as saying by Reuters.
According to the agreement, there will be a system to match workers with Malaysian employers, where there will be applications to improve wage protection and handle complaints.
However, Widodo hopes the agreement’s scope can be expanded to other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and services.
“Indonesian migrant workers have contributed a lot to the economic development in Malaysia. It’s only right they get rights and protection,” he said after the signing at Istana Merdeka in Jakarta.
Since the foreign worker hiring freeze in Malaysia, sectors such as palm oil plantation, domestic help and manufacturing have been struggling to keep pace with the labour shortage.
Last October, Putrajaya granted the plantation sector a special approval to bring in 32,000 foreign workers to address labour shortage.
For now, Malaysian palm oil players will have to wait until May or June for the new batch of workers.
About 80% of plantation workers in Malaysia are migrants, of which most of them from neighbouring Indonesia. – The Vibes, April 1, 2022
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