MY Voice: Promoting Worker Voice to Reduce Forced and Child Labour in Malaysia

The Centre is a key partner in the MY Voice project, dedicated to providing support through low-barrier remediation services for forced labour and child labour in Malaysia's garment and palm oil industries. 

Our collective goals are as follows:

• Strengthen Advocacy: We aim to build the capacity of workers and civil society to advocate solutions to address forced labour and child labour risks. Government agencies will be supported to strengthen their engagement with workers and CSOs on issues of child labour and forced labour in the production of Malaysian palm oil and garments, both in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. 

• Enhance Worker Voice: We strive to increase the capacity of private sector partners (PSPs), workers and others to implement worker-voice-based social compliance systems. We aim to onboard PSPs from both palm oil and garment sectors to establish social performance teams and processes to implement social compliance system. Technical assistance will be provided to integrate workers’ voice, including introducing them to worker voice technology such as Just Good Work App. 

• Expand Access to Remedies: We are committed to ensuring that exploited workers have access to justice and remedies. We aim to increase the capacity of the private sector, worker leaders, trade unions, communities and CSOs to implement remediation support systems.       

In recent months, several activities have taken place to further our objectives. These include a workshop on worker inclusion in effective risk assessments. MY Voice, in collaboration with the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF)’s P3 project, jointly organised workshops on practical approaches for integrating worker voice in management systems and risk assessments for employers in the palm oil industry. The workshop took place in Kuala Lumpur on 27–28 July 2023 (one-and-a-half-day workshop) and in Sandakan on 31 July–1 August 2023 (two-day workshop). By successfully incorporating worker voice into management systems, businesses can thrive while upholding social responsibility and ensuring decent working conditions. 

If you represent a company interested in partnering with MY Voice, please reach out to Dr. Jia Yen Lai, the MY Voice Project Director, at jlai@sa-intl.org or Senior Project Officer, Letchimi Devi, at letchimi.devi@childrights-business.org.     

MY Voice is led by Social Accountability International (SAI), a global non-governmental organisation dedicated to advancing human rights at work. Funding for MY Voice is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL-37321-21-75-K. 100% of the total costs of the project is financed with USG federal funds, for a total of $5,000,000 dollars. 

For more information about MY Voice, please visit the website.