EIS bill withdrawn, new version to be re-tabled tomorrow

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has withdrawn the Employment Insurance Scheme (EIS) 2017 bill, and will re-table a new version of the EIS bill tomorrow.
The bill which was supposed to aid retrenched workers, was meant to provide bridging benefits and allowances for retrenched workers until their re-employment.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot withdrew the bill at the Dewan Rakyat on the first day of the third sitting today.
"The government is committed to implement EIS from January 2018. The implementation will cover all private sector employers and employees, which is about 430,000 employers and 6.6 million workers.
"The scope of loss of employment includes retrenchment, voluntary/mutual separation scheme, employers who abscond, bankruptcy, closure of company, business restructuring, redundancy, automation and other factors," he said in a statement shortly after withdrawing the bill.
Riot said workers who have lost their employment and have been contributing to the EIS for a certain period will be eligible to apply for financial assistance and job services which include career counselling, job search and job matching, job placement and training whenever necessary.
The system, which will be implemented by the Social Security Organisation (Socso), provides for a re-employment programme and five types of cash assistance namely a job search allowance, early re-reemployment allowance, reduced income allowance, training allowance and fee for training providers.
The new bill which will be tabled tomorrow is expected to have some minor changes from the initial bill.
The initial bill, which was tabled for first reading on Aug 1 during the last sitting, stated that there will be a committee set up to advise Socso's board in the implementation and investment of the Employment Insurance Fund.
It would also require all companies in the industries with even one employee to register itself and its employees irrespective of the amount of wages under the scheme.
Any employer who fails to register his industry within the given period of time will be committing an offence and shall be liable to a RM10,000 fine or maximum two years jail or both.
It provides three schedules of rates of contributions, which may be revised every three years if the minister gives the green light.
The minister is empowered under the proposed law to determine the use of either one of the schedules after taking into consideration the sustainability of the fund.