Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention, 1925 (No. 19) - Malaysia - Peninsular (Ratification: 1957)

Follow-up to the conclusions of the Committee on the Application of Standards (International Labour Conference, 100th Session, June 2011)

Article 1(1) of the Convention. Equal treatment of foreign workers. The Committee recalls that since 1 April 1993, the Malaysian social security system has contained inequalities of treatment that run counter to the provisions of the Convention. This inequality is due to national legislation that transferred foreign workers, employed in Malaysia for up to five years from the Employees’ Social Security Scheme (ESS), which provided for periodical payments to victims of industrial accidents, to the Workmen’s Compensation Scheme (WCS), which guaranteed only a lump sum payment of a significantly lower amount. On several occasions, the case of Malaysia has been discussed by the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards. Most recently, in June 2011, the Conference Committee urged the Government to take immediate steps in order to bring national law and practice into conformity with Article 1 of the Convention, to respect the system of automatic reciprocity instituted by the Convention between the ratifying countries, and to avail itself of the technical assistance of the ILO to resolve administrative difficulties by concluding special arrangements with the labour-supplying countries under Articles 1(2) and 4 of the Convention. In August 2011, the Government indicated that a technical Committee within the Ministry of Human Resources including all stakeholders will pursue the formulation of the right mechanism and system to administer this issue considering the following three options: (i) extension of ESS coverage to foreign workers; (ii) creation of a special scheme for foreign workers under the ESS; and (iii) raising the level of the benefit provided by the WCS so as to be equivalent to that of the ESS benefit.

Replying to the Committee’s 2011 Observation, the Government indicates in its latest report that it is currently in the midst of conducting the actuarial study on the three options under consideration and that upon completion of the study, continuous engagement with the stakeholders will be carried out before the most suitable option is determined. The Committee hopes that the study under preparation will be finalized shortly, that the choices made by the Government in consultation with all stakeholders will fully take into account the requirements of the Convention, that a new approach consistent with the Convention will be implemented expeditiously and that it will report thereon.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2013.]