Its minister M Kulasegaran said the riders would most probably need to contribute to Socso voluntarily.

“They will be freelancers, so it’s their choice. We don’t want to interfere with the market. That’s the whole idea of freelance,” he told reporters after officiating the “Employee Law Reforms: What Lies Ahead” forum organised by Aariana Hospitality International and Kanesalingam & Co Advocate & Solicitors.

However, he said the ministry would study the matter.

He added that one of the challenges in getting the e-riders to contribute was a lack of awareness.

“Malaysians should realise that with such a minimum payment, you get peak coverage,” he said adding that contributions can be as low as 30 sen or 40 sen per day.

Kula said the ministry was also looking into a proposal to make it compulsory for e-hailing companies to contribute to Socso on behalf of the workers.

“That is one of the things we are looking at. We are discussing with e-hailing companies. We actually want to make it compulsory.”

He added that a few companies had said they were not interested. “We should look at it as a common benefit to all workers in the country.”

Effective November 2018, taxi drivers and e-hailing drivers were required to contribute to Socso.

But presently, only about 18% (out of approximately 250,000 active taxi, e-hailing and bus drivers) were complying with the rule, Kula said.

“It should be 100% but we don’t want to take them to court just yet. We are now engaging them. Many have already joined in (and started contributing).”

On a separate matter, Kula added that a high-level committee consisting of Cabinet ministers was studying legalising employment for refugees.

Besides him, he said the committee included the deputy prime minister, and the foreign and home ministers.

He added that the present labour law might not necessarily give the refugees the protection that they needed because they were not Malaysians.