Its executive director Glorene A Das said the bill was drafted together with other organisations such as the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Glorene said after studying the Employment Act 1955, they realised that it did not fully apply to domestic workers, who are identified in the act as domestic servants.
“For instance, a labour inspector cannot go into a private domain like a house to inspect how a domestic worker is doing, like how it gives space for inspectors to do their labour inspection in a business industry.
“This is why a separate legislation with proper terms and conditions is needed for domestic workers. If we do not have this in place, there will be an increase in abuse.
“We hope to push the bill into Parliament by next year,” she said at a press conference today on International Migrants Day 2017.
Speaking on occurrences of abuse, Glorene questioned why countries like Indonesia had asked for an increase in wages, and why countries like the Philippines and Cambodia had stopped sending their domestic workers to Malaysia.
“We have about 50,000 employers waiting for domestic workers and we do not address the root problems of why these abuses are recurring, but rather hop from one country to another country,” she said.
According to regional advocacy group Caram Asia, domestic work is not recognised as work in Malaysia and several other countries.
Its regional coordinator Musarrat Preveen said this was why they were recommending that the government come up with legislation to recognise domestic labour as work, and to protect workers’ labour rights.
When asked what kind of protection is accorded to migrant workers, Glorene said there were presently many laws that protect such individuals.
These include the Employment Act, the Industrial Relations Act 1967, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Atipsom) Act 2007, and the Penal Code
The question, she said, lay in enforcement and implementation, and in ensuring that there is no discrimination.
“If a migrant worker has unpaid wages, he stops his work and files his case in court. Yes, there are avenues available, but he becomes undocumented in the process, as the law also allows employers to cancel his work permit. Then he faces the risk of being arrested and deported.
“And while he is pursuing the case, he has to pay the RM100 amount to immigration for a special visa, but it is only for three months. How can you just give a three-month special pass for the worker to settle the case? It clearly shows the discrimination that exists,” she said.
As for Atipsom, Glorene lamented that officers at the ground level still do not understand what labour trafficking meant, adding that there were gaps in understanding.
She said when incidents involving unpaid wages, no days off, double place of work, and contract substitution were reported to the Labour Department or the police, the reply was usually that they had nothing to do with Atipsom.
“That is why we are calling for a comprehensive policy that can be eventually turned into a migrant worker legislation.
“A separate one, because there are many gaps within the legislations we have today,” she said, adding that the NGO’s analysis had also shown that the law provisions were pro-employer.