KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Human Resources (KSM) is looking into the need to enact new legislation to protect and safeguard the welfare and safety of workers in the gig sector, said Deputy Minister of Human Resources Datuk Awang Hashim.
He said KSM was still holding engagement sessions with stakeholders such as service providers and industry players to look at the sector’s overall employment situation as well as to get the views of all parties on the needs of the workers.
“The Occupational Safety and Health Master Plan 2021-2025 (OSHMP 2025) has outlined a strategic core value to tackle these issues,” he said when winding up the Occupational Health and Safety Bill (Amendment) 2020 at the Dewan Negara here, today.
He said a special programme has been outlined under the core value to strengthen awareness of and sensitivity to safety and health practices in e-hailing services including p-hailing.
Awang said the programme was implemented by various agencies namely KSM, Transport Ministry, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), the Social Security Organisation (Socso) and relevant non-governmental organisations.
Therefore, he said to ensure occupational safety and health (OSH), engagement sessions with p-hailing associations and service provider companies had been carried out, adding that a guideline on OSH practices is being drafted to avoid health and road accident risks.
Meanwhile, Awang said the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) had conducted 243,000 enforcement activities nationwide from January to November this year with 168 cases had been completed involving a penalty of RM1.90 million while 424 compounds were issued amounting to RM1.44 million.
On the proposed increase in penalties, he said the mechanism for raising penalties or fines was in line with the practice implemented in developed countries, apart from referring to other acts and feedback from the public, NGOs and trade unions.
The Bill was tabled to amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514) which contains 55 clauses with 27 additional sections, the abolition of two sections and amendments to 35 existing sections and was passed after being debated by 13 senators.
Apart from that, the Senate approved the Factories and Machinery (Repeal) Bill 2020 tabled by Awang to repeal the Factories and Machinery Act 1967 (Act 139), after being debated by three senators.
-Bernama
