Minister of Human Resources (HR), Steven Sim said the HR Policy is a long-term workforce strategy that highlights the current challenges that the Madani government faces in boosting the economy, improving living standards toward achieving prosperity for the people. The outcome is creating high-skilled jobs and ensuring learning and development.
I remember decent work has been the favourite slogan of Senator Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud, during his tenure as President of the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC). He said, “I believe decent work is fundamental to individual well-being, supports a fair society, and creates motivated workers, productive organisations for our strong economy”.
Syed Shahir who is currently the Chairman of Workers' Empowerment Institute Selangor (WISE) and sits on the Board Member of Sejahtera Leadership Initiative (SLI) & Global Sejahtera, described “decent work is fairly rewarded across all sectors including ageing and foreign workers that gives people the means to securely make a living with dignity”.
In full support of decent work, Yazdi Bankwala, COO of SLI & Global Sejahtera, suggested “HR Policy should set out 3 core themes - Skilled Work, Healthy Work and Sejahtera Work - that we believe should underpin this. A strong focus must be on supporting and improving employer compliance with the law and raising overall employment standards”.
Worker mental health is also at the forefront of the proposed HR Policy. Discrimination at work and sexual harassment should be couched with a strong and clear enforcement body. It is also important to recognise that SMEs will play a bigger part in our future economic growth and so any improvements to workers' rights, should be carefully considered.
I'm in total agreement that workforce planning is absolutely critical and understanding not just where the next generation of talent is, but what will motivate workers' performance and improving productivity. Encouraging investment in technical apprenticeships skills and getting working age back into the workforce would be a game changer for our economy.
Zulkifly Baharom is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
