Page 37 - NAPFL FINAL

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Forced labour is prohibited by the 1957 The Employment Act 1955, Sarawak
Malaysian Federal Constitution and Labour Ordinance (Cap 76) or Sabah
Penal Code. Labour Ordinance (Cap 67) do not
currently deal with forced labour but
rather individual indicators of forced
labour such as contract substitution,
Article 6 of the Federal Constitution excessive overtime, withholding of
states that no persons shall be held wages, abusive working and living
in slavery and all forms of forced National Action Plan on Forced Labour (2021-2025)
labour are prohibited with the conditions.
exception of compulsory national
service and work or service carried
out by persons as a consequence of
a court conviction.
These Act and Ordinances
also protect workers right to
The term ‘no persons’ indicates the organise and it should be
inclusion of all persons, i.e. citizens and
non-citizens, including refugees, asylum- noted that “employers” are
seekers, stateless persons, migrant interpreted broadly to also
workers, documented or otherwise.
cover, for example,
recruitment agencies that

provide labour to multiple
Section 374 of the Penal Code states enterprises.
that “whoever unlawfully compels
any person to labour against the will
of that person, shall be punished
with imprisonment for a term which The Employment Act, pursuant to
may extend to one year or with fine amendments made in 2012 in Act A1419
or with both.” included new terms for interpretation
under Section 2 amongst them is the
“contractor for labour” which means a
person who contracts with a principal,
In the Penal Code, Section 370 is on contractor or sub-contractor to supply
“buying or disposing of any person as a the labour required for the execution of
slave”, Section 371 deals with “habitual the whole or any part of any work which
dealing in slaves” and Section 374 is on a contractor or sub-contractor has
“unlawful compulsory labour”. All these contracted to carry out for a principal or
Sections refer to ‘any person’ and not contractor, as the case may be. There is a
‘citizen’. However, the penalties should need to relook at issues on contractor
be reviewed to be in line with Malaysia’s for labour on matters pertaining to
obligation pursuant to ILO Convention forced labour.
29.