SHAH ALAM: The Employment Act 1955 will be amended to provide for more effective handling of current workplace issues, said Human Resources Minister M. Kula Segaran.
He said the current issues include discrimination at the workplace, paternity leave and working hours.
He said discussions on the proposed amendments had been held with stakeholders throughout the country, including the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC), Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF).
“The discussions have been completed and we are fine-tuning the act. We plan to make several amendments but it is subject to approval from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and Cabinet.
“We hope it can be done in one or two months so that the amendments can be tabled in Parliament this October,” he said after launching the National Industrial Harmony Index (National I.H.I) and ‘ihi2Go’ application here yesterday.
Kula Segaran also said the ministry planned to soon update the Code of Conduct for Industrial Harmony 1975 to make it more relevant with the times.
“It (code) is 44 years old. When it was formulated, there were no computers, no digital economy and no technologies like what we have now.
“Despite being an important code, it has been sort of gathering dust,” he said.
He said the ministry was holding meetings with various stakeholders to get their feedback.
In his speech, he said five other acts including the Trade Union Act 1959 and Industrial Relations Act 1967 would also be amended in the near future.
He said surveys showed that the National I.H.I for 2017 and 2018 were at good levels of 75.9 per cent and 75.6 per cent respectively.
“I hope this score can improve further to 85 per cent within the next five years and eventually hitting the excellent mark of 90 per cent and above,” he said.
He urged employers and workers to cooperate by using the ‘ihi2Go’ application to support the ministry’s efforts to produce the National I.H.I for the coming years.
The ‘ihi2Go’, which can be downloaded on Android phones, was developed by the Malaysian Industrial Relations Department to make it easier and faster for respondents to participate in online surveys to boost the efficiency of data analysis. — Bernama