PUTRAJAYA: The government plans to expand the scope of coverage of the Self Employment Social Security Scheme beyond cabbies, Uber and Grab drivers.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in his Labour Day speech today, said the government is looking into including other self-employed workers into the scheme, including fishermen, farmers, traders and artists.
"This scheme will allow self-employed workers to be covered in the event of occupational accidents or if they suffer from occupational diseases.
"For a start, this scheme will cover about 100,000 people comprising self-employed taxi drivers and those providing e-hailing services - Uber and Grab drivers," said Najib.
The prime minister said the self-employment social security scheme is scheduled to be implemented June 1 this year.
The new Self-Employment Act, which aims to administer Social Security Organisation (Socso) schemes to the self-employed taxi, Uber and Grab drivers, was passed in Parliament recently.