GEORGE TOWN, Oct 25 — The Human Resources Ministry will be abolishing the Workmen’s Compensation Act 1952 and standardise labour laws for foreign workers to also be covered under the Social Security Organisation (Socso).
Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said this will allow all foreign workers, including domestic maids, to be covered by Socso just like local workers.
“We need to standardise the labour laws to match the conventions under the International Labour Organisation’s call to have uniformed laws for all workers regardless of their nationalities,” he said.
He said the ministry hopes to push this proposal through early next year as there are 1.9 million foreign workers in the country.
Currently, foreign workers in the country are covered under the Workmen’s Compensation Act 1952 and by individual insurance policies taken up by their employers.
“This Act is outdated, it will be abolished and all workers should be covered by Socso which has better benefits compared to the Act,” Kulasegaran said in a press conference after visiting the Bukit Kukus landslide site here.
He said with contributions to Socso, the workers will receive life-long payments and their dependents will also receive monthly payments if there were fatalities.
“Socso also covers rehabilitation and has one of the best rehabilitation hospitals in the country in Melaka for workers,” he said.
Kulasegaran said the rehabilitation hospital can help workers to recover fully from their injuries and the workers can even go back to work instead of taking total permanent disability claims.
Just last week, Putrajaya told all e-hailing and taxi drivers to register and make contributions to Socso under the Self Employment Social Security Scheme.
