KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 — The Department of Labour of Peninsular Malaysia said yesterday it has yet to find any incident of hotels banning its frontline Muslim women employees from wearing the 'tudung' or headscarves.
Its deputy director-general Paeza Rosdi said checks at seven international hotels in Putrajaya found not only that such a ban not exist, but several outlets even provide headscarves to employees as part of their uniforms.
“Two of our officers were sent to each hotel and the investigation was done by interviewing every employee and the management to get their views on the ban,” she was quoted saying in Utusan Malaysia.
“Despite that, the result of the probe in seven hotels in Putrajaya found no such ban for female workers, but there are hotels that provide headscarves matching with the uniform to be worn by their workers.”
The department will now continue its investigation in neighbouring Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, and other states such as Kedah and Penang.
Paeza also admitted that the department was only made aware of the alleged ban from media coverage, since it has never received any official complaints.
“We have asked all our state offices and they too have never received any complaint regarding the issue,” Paeza reportedly said.
“We have also contacted Uni-MLC for information regarding the 16 hotels, but so far there has been no response,” she added, referring to the Malaysian Labour Centre of the Union Network International.
Uni-MLC had ecently alleged that hotel female employees had complained about being told to remove their headscarves.
