TPPA: Govt doing its best for workers - Ismail Abdul Muttalib

The government is always doing its best to look after the welfare of workers in the country although they have the freedom to set up unions under the The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), said Deputy Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Abdul Muttalib.

He said the people need not look at it negatively but must grab job opportunities in every industry and be picked to lead unions.

"According to the TPPA labour chapter, foreign workers can be union leaders. To me, we must take it positively. That is why we want local workers to grab all opportunities available in all sectors.

"We have 2.1 million legitimate foreign workers in the country, whilst the young should rightly be recruited to work," he said.

He said this to reporters after launching the first general meeting of the Train Drivers Union (TDU) here today.

Ismail said in the chapter on labour in TPPA, the government must give freedom to foreign workers to set up associations, but there were conditions and regulations following international labour rules.

To this end, the people should not be picky about work but must take over jobs which were mainly controlled by foreign workers, he said.

He said when the local people controlled numerous sectors of labour employment they could get together and become leaders of unions which had many foreign workers as members.