KANGAR: Strict enforcement of labor laws has ensured that 1.5 million workers have received an additional 20% in social security benefits, says Human Resources Minister Steven Sim.

This was among the benefits derived from the ministry’s commitment to ensuring workplace safety and its efforts to improve the welfare, skills and productivity of workers in the country, he said.

To this end, he said the ministry enforced eight labor laws in Malaysia, including laws related to the Social Security Organization (Socso), and fully implemented the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Sim said laws related to Socso allowed 1.5 million workers in the country to receive an additional 20 percent of Socso benefits, while about 100 improvements were introduced under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

“I want every worker to be able to go to work at a decent workplace every morning, work with dignity, receive a fair wage, respectable benefits and perks, and at the end of each working day, return home to safety to be with loved ones. ”, he said in his speech during a working visit and launch of the MyWira Veteran Program as well as State-level Talent Development Program at the Industrial Training Institute here yesterday.

“This is what we have been working on for the past 10 months to enable our workers to receive greater recognition and appreciation,” he said, Bernama reported.

Veteran MyWira, a career continuation program, launched on January 22. It is the result of a collaboration between the ministry and the Ministry of Defence, led by agencies within the two ministries, TalentCorp and Ex-Servicemen Affairs Corporation (Perhebat) respectively. , while the Talent Development Program is implemented by HRD Corp.

Sim also said he would table new legislation next month to protect the welfare of economy workers such as e-hailing and p-hailing drivers.

“These workers are not protected under existing law because they are not defined as employees. We are therefore introducing new legislation that is aligned with countries such as Singapore, the United States and Australia.

“This is a step towards good governance to give rights to our workers. This is what we have been working on for the last eight to 10 months, to provide dignity and humanity to our workforce,” he said.

At the same time, he urged the ministry staff in Perlis to go to the ground, engage with the workers, listen to them, observe their challenges firsthand and do their best to help solve the problems.