Protection For Part Time Work

This is better than the minimum wage proposal. Yesterday, the Human Resource minister announced that EPF, SOCSO, and medical benefits are now mandatory for part time workers:

M’sian workers can take on part time work from Oct 1: Dr Subra (Update) By ALLISON LAI

JASIN: Some 17.5 million Malaysian workers can work part time from Oct 1 under a new clause in the Employment Act enabling them to earn extra income and reduce dependency on foreign workers, said Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam.

The new regulation under the Employment Act 1955 would apply to some 12mil existing workers from both private and public sectors with another 6.5mil latent workforce in the country…

…Dr Subramaniam said that according to the new regulation, part-time workers would be given salaries and other relevant benefits such as Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributions, Social Security Organisation (Socso) coverage and medical entitlements based on a pro rata basis…

…He said the 6.5 million latent workforce in the country includes housewives, disabled citizens, students and undergraduates who are productive workers.

Most of them from the latent workforce are skilled and educated.

What’s not mentioned is that most of this “latent” workforce are actually women who have a low labour force participation rate. Here’s one more step for Malaysia in getting out of the middle income trap – greater utilisation of the existing workforce.