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By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Aug 26: The tabling of the amendment bill to the Sarawak Labour Ordinance 1959 will not make it for this October Parliament session and will be pushed to next year.
Malaysian Minister of Human Resources V. Sivakumar said both the Ministry and the Sarawak government are still in the discussion stage on several matters which need to be standardised.
“After we finalise the provisions, then we can bring it up for approval and maybe (table it in Parliament) next year, as early as possible.
“Therefore, it depends on whether we can solve this matter immediately – of course, I am very keen in solving this issue,” he told a press conference after a dialogue session on ‘Labour’ held at Raia Hotel and Convention Centre here today.
Sivakumar further said despite the Ordinance being a federal law, the preparation of the provisions is carefully done in respect of the Sarawak government by consulting the latter.
“When we table the amendment bill in Parliament later, we want to standardise it with the Employment Act 1955 so that the Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak will have the same law.
“However, we still have to respect the Sarawak government which is why we have to discuss with them that these are the amendments that we have implemented at the federal level and we wish to incorporate these amendments into this Sarawak Labour Ordinance.
“The objective is to standardise the labour law. So far, the progress is on track,” he added.
In the previous report dated July 9, Sarawak Deputy Minister in Premier’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala stated that the Sarawak Cabinet has agreed to the draft amendment to the Sarawak Labour Ordinance 1959.
These amendments reportedly include increased maternity leave from 60 to 98 days, new provision for paternity leave of 7 days, reduction of weekly working hours from 48 to 45 hours, and new provisions against sexual harassment. — DayakDaily
