THE government must not hide under pointless ad hoc solutions to overcome the forced labour problem in the country, Penang leader P. Ramasamy said today.

He said the government must first acknowledge that there is forced labour in Malaysia and have the political will to punish employers who exploit these workers.

The Penang deputy chief minister said for a start, the Human Resources Ministry must undertake a systematic investigation into labour conditions in the country.

The ministry must also investigate why employers were flouting the law in engaging in forced labour.

Ramasamy said the ministry seemed to be reacting to developments and was not truly interested in ridding the country of the shame of slave labour.

“Is minister Saravanan willing to admit the government simply lacks the political will to punish employers, whether big or small, for flouting labour laws in the country,” the DAP leader said in a statement today.

He was responding to Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan’s Friday announcement that a national forced labour action plan would be launched next month to deal with the exploitation of workers in the various sectors, including in rubber glove manufacturing.

Saravanan’s statement came following the US Customs and Border Protection Department imposed an import ban on rubber-based products manufactured by a subsidiary of Supermax Corporation Bhd.

The company had met 10 of the US authority’s indicators for forced labour in its manufacturing operations.

Other Malaysian companies had also in the past faced similar US bans for failing to meet work standards.

Ramasamy said Saravanan’s ministry was springing into action just because a few gloves companies had been slapped with a US ban on their products.

“Saravanan has suddenly realised that there is a problem of forced labour in the country.

“He should realise that forced labour in the various forms exists in all sectors especially in the export sector.

“It is a shame that it takes the US in the form of a ban on gloves import from Malaysia to register protests against the use of forced labour in the country,” he said.

He added that while there were many laws to stamp out forced labour, the government appeared reluctant to move against recalcitrant employers.

“Malaysia can have all the laws in the world against forced labour and the miserable treatment of workers but without political will nothing can be done.” – October 24, 2021.