"KL plans labour law reform amid mistreatment of foreign workers", 3  February 2019

...Malaysia's Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said the...government...would propose changes to the country's patchwork of decades-old labour laws to offer both domestic and foreign workers more legal protection.

"We need to ensure the dignity and protection not only of domestic workers but also foreign ones," Mr Kulasegaran told The Sunday Times.

The government is consulting labour groups, including the Malaysian Trade Union Congress and International Labour Organisation (ILO), Mr Kulasegaran said.

The government has said it is considering extending worker's compensation to foreign workers and ban the use of private recruiting agencies over fears that some are engaging in what amounts to human trafficking.

...An amnesty for undocumented workers is "in the pipeline", the minister said, adding that the final decision belongs to Home Affairs Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

...The ILO confirmed that Malaysia has asked for its help "as part of a holistic review of a revision of its main labour acts", said its Kuala-Lumpur-based chief technical advisor, Mr Hugo van Noord.

..."Successful passage of all these and other legal and institutional reforms... would lead to a new industrial relations landscape in Malaysia with less government intervention," Mr Van Noord said.