“I’ll make sure local workers will not get less (than what they are getting now) but will get more from what they will be doing,” he said during a working visit to the Kulim Advanced Technology Training Center (Adtec) here today.

He said the abolition of the act was to safeguard the welfare of foreign workers in the country in terms of insurance coverage as well as to show that the government does not discriminate against them.

The move, he said, was also in line with the Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention 1925 (No 19) and the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards under the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Kulasegaran said unlike local workers, foreign workers are protected under the Social Security Organisation (Socso) and the government could take action against employers that do not subscribe for their employees.

“For instance, recently, representatives from the Japanese government met me and requested for our people to work there because their population is getting older. So, we must make sure our people who go there (Japan) to work are covered by insurance.

“We do not want incidents like in Bukit Kukus to happen where it involved many foreign workers. Those killed get nothing (compensation), which is not fair,” he said referring to the landslide at Bukit Kukus, Paya Terubong, Penang, last October that killed nine people.