North-South Initiative executive director Adrian Pereira said it was apparent that Putrajaya was “struggling” to improve standards by amending laws, adding that employers were also rushing to fix the system.

He conceded that improvements in the protection of migrant worker rights had been made by companies “under the spotlight”, but noted that some of the firms were government-linked companies (GLCs).

“If a GLC cannot show a good track record, can you imagine what the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) think they can get away with?”

While amendments to the Employment Act offered better social protection to migrants, Pereira said in reality, they were still unequal to Malaysians.

“As long as there is any form of discrimination or lesser standards, there will be those who try to take advantage,” he said.

He said an example was employers preferring to hire migrant workers over Malaysians to avoid having to make Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) contributions.

“If you compare in terms of skills set, there is no real difference, but there is always a cost-benefit in hiring migrants,” he said, referring to employers requiring migrant workers to work longer hours, on weekends or holidays.

Pereira said there was an economical benefit to hiring migrants, as concluded in a report by the World Bank.

“For every 1,000 migrant workers that are hired, about 800 full-time jobs and 160 part-time jobs are created,” he said.