Malaysia offers gig workers more protection

Malaysia is setting up the Sharing Economy Committee (SEC), which is dedicated to safeguarding gig worker interest. 

Set under the purview of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (K-KOMM) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the committee will advise the government on the sharing economy, and protect the interest of gig workers and users of gig platforms.

The SEC it will “lead the review of the framework and the national roadmap plan for the sharing economy by coordinating and streamlining sharing economy initiatives among the ministry and relevant agencies”, noted K-KOMM.

SEC aims to train and verify 250,000 gig workers in sectors such as services, logistics, and retail, and place 100,000 independent digital workers in high-value gig jobs, said Minister of Communications and Multimedia Tan Sri Annuar Musa, reports Bernama. 

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It also aims to expand 206 local platforms and bring up 50 domestic platforms to international standards. So far, there are 137 sharing economy platforms in Malaysia as of end-2021, up from five in 2015. 

SEC will be driven by four pillars: policy and regulation; confidence in the platforms; incentives; and standards, which include data and metrics.