LETTERS: The proliferation of the digital age and the rise of automation have significantly influenced employment choices in the 21st century.
Promising white-collar jobs are increasingly becoming the leading preference for younger graduates.
Labour shortage in Malaysia has hampered the continuity and recovery of businesses due to spikes in demand and supply.
Reportedly, more than one million unattractive jobs, often labelled "dirty, dangerous and difficult' (3D), span various sectors, including manufacturing, mining and construction. These jobs have been affected due to low uptake among locals and the dependence on migrant workers.
The problems faced by labourers are rooted, more often than not, in the incompatibility of the work conditions and environment with the wages offered. Moreover, the prevalence of forced labour, unpaid wages, lack of rest days, and unhygienic and cramped living conditions have led to humans being treated like commodities.
This is exacerbated by the lack of education, language barriers and limited access to institutions, which means migrant workers are trapped in a vicious cycle of exploitation. The rise of gig economy and hybrid/flexible working hours have shaped the modern workplace in the post-pandemic era. The perception is that manual labour is reserved for poor migrant workers or underprivileged people, who require only low levels of skills to perform these jobs.
According to the Malaysia Labour Productivity 2022 Report, negative growth was evident in the mining and quarrying (-5.1 per cent), manufacturing (-1.9 per cent) and construction (-5.2 per cent) sectors. The unpopular and unglamorous reputation of these jobs is due to the social stigma of being looked down on and the portrayal of a bad image.
Most local and young employees prefer fairer wages and are often not willing to work in poor and harsh environments. Migrant workers, on the other hand, are willing to take up riskier jobs because of the availability of these jobs, and they tend to have lower incomes and less wealth than the locals.
The foreign chief executive officer of a prominent Malaysian-owned company revealed that the Malaysia Poverty Line Index of RM980 per household was outdated, and it was recently revised to RM2,208 in 2019. If the wages for these jobs were to stay at the current rates, the unemployment rate among locals would soar, and employers would have to heavily rely on migrant workers.
Alternatively, in the worst-case scenario, they would need to engage illegal migrant workers to make a profit as quickly as possible.
The poor awareness of and education about 3D jobs means that a paradigm shift is needed to explain why they are crucial for national growth. Interventions by the government and all parties are needed to "rebrand" 3D sectors into respectable and sustainable career paths. The government must enforce the existing laws on the protection of human rights compliance at the workplace to improve the status of 3D workers. The low-class image of these jobs needs to change so that they can come to be regarded as respectable careers.
A complete restructuring of the 3D sector is needed, especially concerning basic access to healthcare, insurance for undertaking risky jobs and fair wages.
The negative conceptualisation of the 3D sector needs to change in a developing nation. Without these jobs, there will be great losses to the country. To become a first-world nation, hubris and past judgment need to be put aside to ensure national progress.
DR SHEIKH ALI AZZRAN SH SAID
Senior lecturer, Centre of Studies for ConstructionFaculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Mara
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times