AI, the two-letter acronym for artificial intelligence that’s upending the world, has become the latest tool of abuse for employers to create further inequality in Malaysia’s already-impaired workforce.
At its most noble point, AI makes traditional jobs easier and more efficient to complete. At its worst, it decimates jobs without emotion or consideration to human welfare. Since most AI-powered tasks need some level of human involvement to be accomplished, the middle-of-the-road solution would be to reskill and upskill people to make them relevant to today’s technology.
What this simply means is that employers and the government should not misinterpret the effects of AI to promote redundancy and unemployment. They need to, instead, support efforts to retrain workers to ensure that the introduction of AI into the workplace is carried out fairly and objectively and not discriminatorily, disrupting livelihoods.
This is important because, currently, many employers conduct training merely to show evidence to the relevant authorities that they have such programs in place. The training modules are typically in cookie-cutter style, with the primary intent being to placate the powers-that-be rather than promoting skills in the workplace.
Similarly, some so-called trainers are more interested in invoicing their clients than caring whether the methods and language they use are suitable for their audience and whether the participants are attentive or virtually sleepwalking through the program.
A clear example of this is the e-learning widely used by Malaysian banks, which often boast about training large numbers of employees. These organisations pay little attention to whether the employees understand the content.
This is especially problematic when many of these e-learning modules are in English, ignoring the political realities of the country, which has shaped an entirely new generation of workers who aren’t proficient in the language — thanks to more than three decades of discrimination by our politicians against the lingua franca of the world.
While prominent politicians and their elite circle have progressed with their agenda of marginalizing English at the national level, the general population of the country continues to suffer.
Unfortunately, many of these ordinary Malaysians are from the B40 and M40 low-income groups and they are treated as second-class citizens in their own country.
In 2023, NUBE successfully negotiated with the banks to include in their Collective Agreement with their workers retraining requirements and mandatory social dialogue.
However, when NUBE filed a complaint in 2024, citing non-compliance by the banks to the Agreement, the Industrial Court has yet to hear the case despite almost a year, citing a lack of available chairpersons.
In contrast, when employers file complaints, the court expedites their cases, with some issues being heard and resolved quickly.
Once again, the real losers will be the poor B40 and M40 employees. In the banking industry, 15,000 employees are from the B40 and M40.
Unfortunately, CEOs are more focused on maximizing profits and protecting their positions and perks, rather than prioritizing the welfare and future of B40 and M40 employees.
Despite raising these concerns with the Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, as well as with two Finance Ministers—one of whom is the Prime Minister, none of them responded, and the 15,000 B40 and M40 employees continue to be oppressed.
At the recent AI Action Summit in France, the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) made it very clear that employers and government must respect the fundamental, democratic trade union rights of collective bargaining and social dialogue. This is about democracy in the workplace that delivers technological changes that work for everyone.
The AI that’s reshaping the workforce is one of the first fronts where inequality should be righted. Let’s hope the corporations and leaders of the nation have the moral gumption to ensure employees have the right skills to perform — and preserve — their jobs.
Media statement by J Solomon, General Secretary, National Union of Bank Employees.