KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 ― There are 20 hotels locally that bar its Muslim female frontline staff from wearing the tudung or headscarves, the Malaysian Labour Centre of the Union Network International (Uni-MLC) has claimed.
Uni-MLC president Datuk Mohamed Shafie Mammal said the list of the 20 hotels with five-star and six-star rankings will be handed over to the Human Resources Ministry in a meeting tomorrow.
“We hope the Human Resources Ministry will take stern action against those hotels so that there is no oppression or compulsion in order to protect the dignity of female Muslim workers in this country,” he was quoted saying by local daily Sinar Harian, adding that he hoped the hotels would be honest in finding a solution to the controversy.
He said that complaints received regarding the tudung ban also involved hotel employees that were not working in the frontline departments, adding that these female staff should be given the option to choose whether to don the headscarf.
“If hotels maintain their standard operating procedure for uniforms, it might be quite outdated and has to be improved to give female workers freedom according to the Federal Constitution,” he said.
Last Friday, the Department of Labour of Peninsular Malaysia said it found no tudung ban policy in place during its inspection at seven international hotels in Putrajaya. It added that some even provided uniforms with matching headscarves for its female employees.
The department also said it would continue checks in neighbouring Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and other states; noting that the department had never received any complaints on the alleged tudung ban.
Uni-MLC had recently alleged that hotel female employees had complained that they were told to remove their headscarves.
