Support for Labor Law and Industrial Relations Reform in Malaysia

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Project Duration:
October 2016
-
March 2019
Funding and Year:
FY
2016
: USD
1,550,000

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The Problem

The Government of Malaysia has taken important steps to improve protection of worker rights. However, concerns remain regarding a number of Malaysia’s labor laws and practices related to freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced labor, child labor, and employment discrimination.

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Our Strategy

Project Objectives:

  1. National government drafts laws, decrees or regulations, and other legal instruments with a view to developing a well-functioning industrial relations system.
  2. Employers/employers’ organizations, workers/workers’ organizations, and the public are better informed on the laws and regulations, prior to and after their adoption.
  3. Labor Ministry improves the efficiency and effectiveness of labor administration, including labor inspections, to ensure that the new and amended existing laws, decrees or regulations, and other legal instruments are being enforced, focusing especially on freedom of association, collective bargaining, and forced labor. 
  4. Relevant dispute resolution, judicial and law enforcement authorities understand the content of, and obligations under, ILO core conventions (both ratified and non-ratified); and effectively administer and enforce the new and amended existing laws, decrees or regulations, and other legal instruments. 

Four distinct and mutually reinforcing components of the project will be pursued: Legal and regulatory reform; outreach and awareness raising prior to the adoption of the new laws, particularly with employers, and following the adoption of new laws; labor inspection assessment and strategic planning; and reform of the dispute resolution system, and training of relevant government officials, workers’ and employers’ organizations, adjudicators and police. 

Targets:

Government officials involved with drafting legislation, regulations and policies; workers’ and employers’ representatives who participate in tripartite consultations and who are reached by awareness-raising campaigns; and dispute resolution officials and adjudicators participating directly in training.

Grantee: International Labor Organization (ILO)
Contact Information:
(202) 693-4900
/
Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA)