PUTRAJAYA should draft an anti-discrimination law to protect workers who don the hijab, the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) said today amid growing furore over a policy in some international hotel chains to prevent frontline staff from wearing the headscarf.

MTEM chief executive officer Ahmad Yazid Othman also described as absurd the Malaysian Association of Hotels’s (MAH) defence of the policy, which was said to be standard operating procedure (SOP) in the industry.

“These things are still happening; we are a multiracial country and these things shouldn’t (be) happening.

“We have been independent for 60 years, there shouldn’t be any discrimination based on race,” he said during a press conference at the MTEM headquarters in Damansara today.

Yazid said SOPs in every work sector should be refined to ensure it fits well with all religious beliefs in Malaysia.

“We need a clearer justification, we are against this discrimination if it’s not clear. We also need to investigate every local and international company,” he said.

He added that MTEM had not spoken to any hotelier but was responding to MAH’s recent statement defending the policy.

Yazid also urged for the resignation of MAH’s chairman.

“Their justification is even more insulting than the action itself. I think a lot of people are angered by the justification implying that this is accepted and how long it has been accepted, that’s the bigger insult,” said Yazid.

Yazid said MTEM’s position on the matter was backed by 15 other Malay civil society groups.

He called on workers who were affected by the hijab ban to inform the respective authorities.

“We need to figure out how we can ensure that employers understand discrimination.

“I think some of them are purely ignorant, they don’t know what is considered discrimination so (they don’t see it as) an attack on any particular group or community. This is reality that we need to address,” he said.

MAH defended the policy after the Malaysian Labour Centre of the Union Network International (Uni-MLC) and the International Women’s Alliance for Family Institution and Quality Education (Wafiq) recently said hotel employees had complained that Muslim workers in frontline positions had been told to remove their headscarves.

The centre said this was also happening to hospitality and tourism students applying for internships.

In February, MTEM proposed an Equal Opportunities Act to stem racial and gender discrimination in employment. – November 17, 2017.