THE authorities must implement measures that places  emphasis on the quality of labour in Malaysia’s quest to stop forced labour, said DAP leader P. Ramasamy.

The Penang deputy chief minister II said forced labour cannot be stopped by enforcement measures alone.

“Mere tinkering of the labour system might not beget the results that Malaysia is hoping for,” he said in a statement today.

“The phenomenon of forced labour has complex roots in the nature of the economy, the developmental trajectory of the country and most importantly, the nature of the labour system.”

Ramasamy said it is only when the Malaysian economic system recognises the value of workers that the country can shed all forms of forced labour. 

On Friday, Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar said efforts to eradicate forced labour in the country will be comprehensively increased through the amendment of the Labour Act 1955 (Amendment 2022) that came into force on January 1.

He said the addition of section 90B provide for penalties against employers who commit forced labour offences under the act. 

Sivakumar said this was among the measures taken to resolve issues of forced labour as well as those stated by the US State Department in its 2023 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.

“Banning products from Malaysia on the grounds of forced labour deprives the country of the much needed revenue,” he said.

Ramasamy today said the existence of forced labour in the industrial, manufacturing and agricultural sectors is an impediment to the export of goods to the US and European Union.

“In the past, Malaysia had its goods, gloves and palm oil banned in the US because those were produced under conditions of forced labour.

“It was a difficult for Malaysia to convince the US authorities that Malaysia was doing everything possible to eliminate the scourge of forced labour.”

The International Labour Organisation defines forced labour as payment of wages in kind rather than cash, long working hours, low wages, child labour, and extra-economic controls on the movement of labour. – June 19, 2023.