Foreign workers in Malysia
Construction Management and Economics (2001) 19, 789-798
Foreign workers and labour segmentation in
Malaysia 's construction industry
ABDUL-RASHID ABDUL-AZIZ
School of Housing Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden 11800, Penang, Malaysia
Received 1 September 2000; accepted 24 May 2001
One of the profound changes to have taken place over the last two decades in the construction industry in
Malaysia is the emergence of foreign site operatives as an indispensable component of the labour force. This research shows that they have been exposed to some degree of discrimination at the hands of local employers.
Labour segmentation has prevailed as a consequence of variability in country-specific traits. Schisms between the foreign nationals and local workers and between the various foreign nationals operate to the employers ' advantage in that greater control can be exerted. Labour violations have always been an inexorable feature of the Malaysian construction industry, with little prospect of reform. As there seem to be no signs of the dependence on foreign workers attenuating, future waves of migrant workers can expect to be subjected to the same employer treatment, and hence labour segmentation.
Keywords: Labour, Malaysia, segmentation, site operatives, treatment
Introduction
The 1986-1997 period of rapid economic expansion in Malaysia stimulated contemporary labourflowsfrom abroad of unprecedented proportions (Kassim, 1996).
A labour void the resultant of fairly inelastic domestic manpower unable to meet rising demand was the driving force. From the approximately 500 000 foreign workers in 1984 (Abella, 1996), numbers swelled to in excess of 1.2 million by 1991 (Pillai, 1992). By the mid-1990s, foreign workers made up 15% of the labour force (Lin, 1996). Even, after the tumultuous Asian
Currency Crisis, which led to retrenchment, the official assessment was that the number of foreign workers in Malaysia had doubled
Foreign workers and labour segmentation in
Malaysia 's construction industry
ABDUL-RASHID ABDUL-AZIZ
School of Housing Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden 11800, Penang, Malaysia
Received 1 September 2000; accepted 24 May 2001
One of the profound changes to have taken place over the last two decades in the construction industry in
Malaysia is the emergence of foreign site operatives as an indispensable component of the labour force. This research shows that they have been exposed to some degree of discrimination at the hands of local employers.
Labour segmentation has prevailed as a consequence of variability in country-specific traits. Schisms between the foreign nationals and local workers and between the various foreign nationals operate to the employers ' advantage in that greater control can be exerted. Labour violations have always been an inexorable feature of the Malaysian construction industry, with little prospect of reform. As there seem to be no signs of the dependence on foreign workers attenuating, future waves of migrant workers can expect to be subjected to the same employer treatment, and hence labour segmentation.
Keywords: Labour, Malaysia, segmentation, site operatives, treatment
Introduction
The 1986-1997 period of rapid economic expansion in Malaysia stimulated contemporary labourflowsfrom abroad of unprecedented proportions (Kassim, 1996).
A labour void the resultant of fairly inelastic domestic manpower unable to meet rising demand was the driving force. From the approximately 500 000 foreign workers in 1984 (Abella, 1996), numbers swelled to in excess of 1.2 million by 1991 (Pillai, 1992). By the mid-1990s, foreign workers made up 15% of the labour force (Lin, 1996). Even, after the tumultuous Asian
Currency Crisis, which led to retrenchment, the official assessment was that the number of foreign workers in Malaysia had doubled
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