M'SIA: 80,000 WORKERS TEMPORARILY LAID-OFF

DENGKIL (Malaysia), Feb 20 (Bernama) -- Some 80,000 workers from various
sectors in Malaysia have been temporarily laid-off until last month, almost
double than the figure expected, said Human Resources Minister Dr S.
Subramaniam.

He said some 19,000 workers had been retrenched until last month, 4,000 more
than the expected figure.

"We had expected 45,000 workers would be temporarily laid-off by last month.
Some workers are working up to four days a week while others had their working
hours shortened from 12 hours to eight hours a day," he told reporters after
launching the Women Empowerment Project sponsored by ExxonMobil here Thursay.

Dengkil is a small Malaysian town in the Sepang district of Selangor that
lies between Cyberjaya to the north and Salak Tinggi to the south. In recent
years, Dengkil has benefited from the growth of Putrajaya which is located
nearby.



Dr Subramaniam said most of the workers involved were in the manufacturing,
electrical and electronic sectors with less than 20 factories winding up
operation to date.

Retrenched workers could join various training courses and entrepreneur
development programmes provided by the ministry, he said, adding that trainees
would be given the cost of living allowance.


"By taking up the courses, which shall be free of charge, retrenched workers
could earn higher salaries when they rejoin their companies when the economy
recovers as they would have acquired additional skills by then," he said.

Dr Subramaniam said the Human Resources Ministry had been allocated RM220
million to conduct courses and it would seek more funds under the second
economic stimulus package for training.

He said the ministry would also be conducting an employment roadshow
throughout the country to assist retrenched and temporarily laid-off workers
find new jobs or join training courses.

-- BERNAMA