Sarawak's labour laws will be amended to enable Sarawakians to enjoy equal rights with workers throughout the country, Human Resources Minister Steven Sim said.
Sim said he has discussed this with Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg and the amendment is expected to be tabled in Parliament by the end of the year.
"Once passed in Parliament, workers in Sarawak will be able to enjoy better benefits and protection.
"The existing state labour laws have not been amended for more than 20 years," Sim said.
The Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) branch in Sarawak had taken the state government to task for failing to upgrade its long-outdated state labour laws.
The state had repeatedly promised to upgrade its labour laws to be on par with that of the rest of the country but had failed to fulfil its promises, the MTUC had said.
"Sabah had already upgraded its state labour laws which are now on par with the labour laws in the peninsula states.
"Sarawak has still not taken steps to present a motion to Parliament to upgrade its state labour laws.
"Sarawak is the only state where its workers are not getting the type of protection and benefits workers in the rest of the country are getting," the MTUC had said.
The Sarawak Labour Ordinance, formulated in the 1970s, will be upgraded so that it will be on par with the labour laws in the peninsula states that offer adequate annual leave, overtime pay and reasonable working hours to workers, Deputy State Minister for Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring Datuk Gerawat Gala had said previously.
Once the upgrading is done, workers in Sarawak will have added benefits.
Other benefits include seven days paternity leave for men whose wives had just given birth, maternity leave for women to be increased from 60 days now to 98 days and weekly working hours for all workers to be reduced from 48 hours to 45 hours.
Unions representing workers in Sarawak have been fighting for these benefits for years. - September 20, 2024
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