Abdul-Aziz, A R (2001) Foreign workers and labour segmentation in Malaysia's construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 19(8), pp. 789-798. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
One of the profound changes to have taken place over the last two decades in the construction industry in Malaysia is the emergence of foreign site operatives as an indispensable component of the labour force. This research shows that they have been exposed to some degree of discrimination at the hands of local employers. Labour segmentation has prevailed as a consequence of variability in country-specific traits. Schisms between the foreign nationals and local workers and between the various foreign nationals operate to the employers' advantage in that greater control can be exerted. Labour violations have always been an inexorable feature of the Malaysian construction industry, with little prospect of reform. As there seem to be no signs of the dependence on foreign workers attenuating, future waves of migrant workers can expect to be subjected to the same employer treatment, and hence labour segmentation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | labour; Malaysia; segmentation; site operatives; treatment |
| Index terms: | migrant worker, discrimination, site operative, emergence, violation, labour force, foreign worker, construction industry, variability, Malaysia |
| Subjects: | practitioner, business, Geography, economics, management, systems engineering, statistical analysis, professional ethics, industry analysis, regulatory law |
| Topics: | International Construction, Supply Chain Management, Legal Issues, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Engineering Principles |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here