Perjuangan untuk hak "8 jam kerja, 8 jam rekreasi dan 8 jam rehat" semakin lama telah dinafikan pekerja apabila majikan diberikan kebenaran melanjutkan masa kerja.
Pada 1989, kerajaan telah meminda Akta berkenaan had masa yang pekerja perlu kerja tetapi telah masih menghadkan kepada tidak lebih daripada 48 jam se minggu, tetapi pada 1998 had jam kerja maksima seminggu ini juga telah dikeluarkan. Masalahnya, adalah bila majikan meminta memanjangkan masa kerja, pihak kerajaan membenarkan...dan biasanya pekerja dan/atau union langsung tidak pun diberikan peluang didengar sebelum keputusan dibuat dan kebenaran diberikan kepada majikan.
Kerja lebih masa(overtime) hanya dibenarkan sekiranya pekerja setuju tetapi sebenarnya keupayaan pekerja untuk tidak bersetuju kerja 'over-time' apabila diminta majikan sudah tidak lagi wujud. Tambahan, apabila pekerja kini diambil kerja bukan sebagai pekerja 'regular' tetap sehingga bersara tetapi sebagai pekerja kontrak jangka pendek. Jika tak mahu ikut cakap majikan dan kerja lebih masa, mungkin kontrak kerja tak akan dilanjutkan. Maka, apa pilihan yang pekerja ada...kerja sahaja?
Malaysia juga membenarkan banyak kilang beroperasi 24 jam beroperasi mengunakan 2 syif sahaja. Sepatutnya, kerajaan mesti mewajibkan semua kilang/tempat kerja yang beroperasi lebih daripada 16 jam mesti mempunyai 3 syif.
Nyata kerajaan tak peduli sangat pekerja dan kebajikan keluarga pekerja. Tanpa, kerja tetap sampai umur persaraan - pekerja hilang kuasa untuk pilih sendiri sama ada mahu kerja 'overtime' atau tidak.
Gaji pula sangat rendah, di mana pada masa ini, ramai pekerja terpaksa mengambil 'kerja kedua' atau 'kerja sambilan' demi memastikan kehidupan dan kebajikan diri sendiri dan keluarga. Setengah pekerja masih lagi belum menikmati gaji minima pun hingga kini.
Kerajaan mesti memastikan kualiti kehidupan pekerja dan keluarga mereka, dan ini bererti harus kerajaan memastikan semua pekerja menikmati hak kerja tetap sehingga persaraan, mendapat gaji yang wajar dan adil, hak pekerja dijamin, .... sila baca Worker
and Trade Union Rights in BN-ruled Malaysia - A pro-business
government that undermined worker rights, welfare and livelihood -
Pekerja Malaysia kurang masa bersama keluarga
JOHOR BAHRU - Kira-kira 63 peratus daripada pekerja Malaysia kurang menghabiskan masa bersama keluarga mereka kerana waktu kerja yang panjang, demikian mengikut kajian yang dijalankan oleh Jobstreet.com.
Kaji selidik yang dijalankan pada September dengan penyertaan 954 pekerja dalam pelbagai industri di Malaysia, juga menunjukkan hampir 70 peratus menghabiskan masa selama dua hingga lima jam bekerja di luar waktu kerja rasmi mereka setiap hari.
Pengurus Negara Jobstreet.com Chook Yuh Yng berkata keseimbangan kerja dan kehidupan adalah mengenai menguruskan antara kerja dan aktiviti lain dengan berkesan yang penting kepada pekerja.
"Syarikat-syarikat perlu meningkatkan strategi keseimbangan kerja dan kehidupan untuk kakitangan kerana ia adalah salah satu cara paling mudah dan kos efektif untuk memastikan mereka terlibat, mencergaskan semula dan bermotivasi," katanya dalam satu kenyataan semalam.
Tanpanya, Chook berkata tekanan, keletihan dan ketidakhadiran boleh mengurangkan produktiviti dan prestasi syarikat.
Kaji selidik itu menunjukkan sebab utama responden memilih kerja lebih masa adalah disebabkan tarikh akhir yang tidak munasabah dan bebanan kerja, dengan tekanan yang lebih besar pada pekerja untuk menyelesaikan tugas mereka.
Hampir 75 peratus daripada responden memilih untuk berada lebih masa di pejabat untuk menyelesaikan kerja mereka dengan majoriti menyatakan mereka tidak dibayar bagi masa tambahan mereka.
Kira-kira 60 peratus menunjukkan syarikat mereka tidak menjalankan sebarang inisiatif untuk menggalakkan keseimbangan kerja dan kehidupan.
Kaji selidik itu juga mendedahkan bahawa 54 peratus berkata mereka tidak mengambil cuti tahunan kelayakan mereka tetapi hampir semua menjawab bahawa mereka masih mendapat teks kecemasan daripada ketua mereka.
Hanya 25 peratus daripada responden menyatakan mereka tidak mendapat sebarang gangguan daripada kerja semasa cuti manakala 78 peratus membiarkan telefon bimbit mereka dapat dihubungi ketua mereka sepanjang masa.
Majoriti responden berpendapat syarikat perlu menyediakan waktu kerja yang fleksibel dengan pekerja boleh memilih waktu bermula dan berakhir bekerja setiap hari dan bukannya masa yang tetap.
Satu lagi cadangan ialah syarikat-syarikat perlu mempunyai dasar yang menggalakkan pekerja bekerja kurang daripada 40 jam seminggu, bukannya mewajibkan bekerja dari 9 pagi hingga 6 petang setiap hari. - Bernama - Sinar Harian, 18/10/2013, Pekerja Malaysia kurang masa bersama keluarga
Erosion
of Right to ‘Eight hours labour, Eight
hours recreation, Eight hours rest’
Action taken by stonemasons
on 21 April 1856, followed by many other worker struggles ultimately led to the
establishment and maintenance of the Eight Hour Day, that is now recognized
internationally, and this right was also given a high priority by the
International Labour Organization (ILO) since its creation in 1919. [i]
The slogan ‘Eight hours labour, Eight
hours recreation, Eight hours rest’ captures the essence of this
struggle. Likewise in Malaysia, this right is to be found in our Employment Act
1955. Any work beyond 8 hours would be construed as overtime work, and this
required the consent of the worker and also entitled the worker to be paid
extra, at a rate usually not less than one and half times his hourly
rate of pay.[ii]
But in 1989[iii],
the government amended the law allowing for the Minister to waive these rights
as to required hours of work, on the application of the employer, but retained
the condition that no worker is required to work for more than forty-eight
hours in one week, which subsequently was removed by yet another amendment in
1998[iv].
What was obviously missing
was the requirement of the prior agreement of the worker and/or the relevant
union, , let alone the right to be heard, before decision are made that allowed
the employer to deny workers this long
struggled for right that limits the required hours of work. The law now
provides that after that decision is made, ‘… any person who is dissatisfied
with any decision of the Director General … may, within thirty days of such
decision being communicated to him, appeal in writing … to the Minister, and
any decision or order of the Minister shall be final, thus shutting the door to
judicial review – being the court's authority to examine an executive or
legislative act and to invalidate that act if it is contrary to constitutional
principles and justice.
There is also an absence of
clear provisions in law that requires the provision of any notice whatsoever to
workers and/or their unions when the said applications are being made by
employers to the Director General, and as such decisions are being made by the
government without workers being given the right to be heard. At present such
‘permissions’ are not even publicly and openly disclosed even in the relevant
Ministry’s website. No guidelines and/or simple forms are provided for as to
how workers can appeal these decisions, and given that the appeal must be in
writing, there being no provision of any right to be heard orally, workers and/or
unions, with no required language capabilities or knowledge in law are
certainly prejudiced by this present procedure of protest and appeal. Remember,
there are about 2 million migrant workers in Malaysia, most of whom do not have
the capacity to read and write Bahasa
Malaysia, let alone write to the Minister.
The employment law provides
minimum rights for all workers in Malaysia, but these rights can so easily and
‘secretly’ be denied to workers as the Director General of Labour permits
employers to do so, with no prior notice or right to be heard given to workers.
Similar provisions are available all over the Acts providing for various worker
rights to be taken away.
As it stands, now workers
may be required to work long hours, even more than ten hours per day, and even
more than 48 hours per week – so what exactly is the limit. The employers also
can require their workers to work on rest days and even on public holidays, and
for some workers do even have to work on May 1st, Workers’ Day. Some
companies do not stop operations, and workers are continuously working in their
respective shifts and this also prevents workers from meeting and/or organizing
unions and/or developing collective demands. Workers on day shifts, some
starting at 8.00 am and ending at 8 pm would not even have the opportunity to go
to the Labour Department to lodge complaints, and in Malaysia most of the
avenues of complaints and justice for workers only operate in the usual working
hours. The same is the case with national/regional unions and the MTUC office,
National Human Rights Commission(SUHAKAM) and even the Legal Aid Centres
operated by the Malaysian Bar- .Worker
and Trade Union Rights in BN-ruled Malaysia - A pro-business
government that undermined worker rights, welfare and livelihood -
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