A youth activist group has disagreed with Putrajaya's plan to exclude the anti-discrimination provision given to job seekers in its ongoing effort to amend the Employment Act 1955.

In a press statement today, Persatuan Pengundi Muda (Undi18) said one of the major challenges faced by young job seekers is discrimination during an interview.

"Such discrimination has seriously impacted thousands of Malaysians annually," said the group.

"It is very common to see 'Chinese preferred' or 'Bumiputera preferred' kind of words when it comes to the criteria of selection," said the group.

"Those who faced discrimination were unable to seek justice. The employers will have the freedom to discriminate rampantly," said Undi18.

"As such, Malaysia should adopt a positive measure to protect job seekers from all sorts of discrimination," it said.

"We hope the Human Resources Ministry will make the right decision to reinstate the anti-discrimination provision into the proposed amendment of the Act," said the group.

In Sept 2018, Putrajaya planned to include an anti-discrimination provision to protect job seekers from discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, marital status, gender, race, religion, disability, and language.

On Aug 14, Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) claimed that it learnt in a recent public open day event that the ministry planned to exclude the job seekers from the anti-discrimination provision.

WAO had urged the ministry to reconsider its plan.