PUTRAJAYA should reject pleas by employers to extend the implementation of the new law on workers’ accommodation, said the Malaysian Trades Union Congress.

MTUC secretary-general J Solomon said the reasons cited by the Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF) to extend the law, which came into force on September 1, are lame and only prolonged the denial of workers’ basic rights to decent living conditions.

“MTUC finds the MEF threat that employers will be forced to retrench workers if they are made to comply with the new laws as vindictive and another attempt to arm twist the government into giving priority to profits over ensuring workers have basic liveable accommodation,” he said in a statement today.

He was referring to MEF’s executive director Shamsuddin Bardan who said yesterday employers needed more time to comply with the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new regulations that provide specific requirements for employers to comply with were only published on August 28, less than a week before the amended law came into force, said Shamsuddin.

“We need at least one year for the government to guide employers. They should not put pressure on us during this trying period.”

Solomon, however, said it is time employers improved the working conditions of workers who are forced to live in cramped and unhygienic conditions with little legal protection.

“The amendments to the act are meant to put an end to foreign workers living in squalid conditions in kongsi at project sites, three-room terrace houses, apartments or shop lots.

“Often as many as 20 people are stuffed into single units and live in deplorable conditions and structures that lack basic amenities.

“The government must not be taken in again by the MEF’s threats of retrenchment,” he said.

He added that the amendments were passed in July 2019 and employers were given more than 12 months to take the necessary measures to comply. – September 7, 2020.