India, Malaysia to sign labour pact in three months

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) India and Malaysia will sign an agreement on recruitment and labour welfare in the next three months.

This was decided during the visit of Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi to Malaysia that concluded Monday, said a statement.

It is expected that the agreement, whose text has already been finalised, will be signed during the visit of Malaysian Minister of Human Resource S. Subramanian in December or January. The Indian minister had held talks with Subramanian during his Malaysian sojourn.

'It will provide an institutional framework for cooperation in promoting orderly recruitment and deployment of Indian workers in Malaysia and Malaysian workers in India,' said a government statement.

The agreement lays down the responsibilities of employers, workers and recruitment agencies as also the procedures for the employment of workers. It provides for the establishment of a joint working group, which will supervise its implementation and work out detailed modalities.

Malaysia also plans to post a labour attache in Chennai to help smoothen movement of Indian workers.