Fundamental Rights of Domestic Workers in Malaysia: Special Reference to the Employment Act 1955 and International Labour Organization Convention (ILO) No. 189

摘要

In Malaysia, domestic work can be considered as a vulnerable work with precarious rights. The Employment Act 1955 (EA 1955) clearly recognises domestic worker as one type of an employee covered under the above Act. Unfortunately, the law excludes them from several common rights as comparedto other occupations. Due to these legal exclusions, domestic workers (DWs) are deprived of enjoying basic necessities of terms in the contract of employment such as paid leave, rest day, working hours, break hours, maternity protection and etc. In 2011, the International Labour Organisation(ILO) passed a special convention which introduces mechanisms to promote a better protection on decent DWs. This paper purports to review and compare the rights of DWs in Malaysia with reference to The EA 1955 and also the ILO Convention no. 189. The legal comparative study has been conductedand found that the ILO convention no. 189 offers better protection and welfare for DWs as compared to the EA 1955. Ultimately, in order to promote a decent work for DWs, it is the right moment for the Malaysian government to make a leap forward by adopting some pertinent provisions of it tobe embedded in the EA 1955.