English

New Malaysia foreign workers are trickling into the country, leading to Malaysian employers pressing for a clear stand on the status of the freeze on such recruitments. Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said new workers had been arriving in Malaysia to fill critical shortages following an intake freeze in February and companies were thus confused as to whether the ban was still on.

He said employers had started applying for new workers since news reports emerged in May about a lifting of the freeze on hiring of such foreigners in the manufacturing, construction, plantation and furniture sectors.

However, there had been conflicting announcements since then, leaving employers scratching their heads.

On June 1, the Home Ministry announced it would not lift the blanket ban on foreign workers until it was convinced that employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), stopped using agents and took full responsibility of their workers’ welfare.

“There seemed to be different policy consideration. Many bosses are not sure if they can apply for new foreign workers,” Shamsuddin said.

He said it was time for the Government to make clear its hiring policy on new foreign workers.

“As a matter of national interest, an official announcement must be made so everyone is clear,” he said.

Shamsuddin said some employers could not wait and were already going to source countries to recruit workers.

This explained the long queues at Immigration counters by employers desperate to fill vacancies, he claimed.

These employers had resorted to such an action in view of the need to fill critical shortages as a result of the intake freeze in February, which reportedly led to RM24bil in losses.

Malayan Agricultural Producers Association (Mapa) executive director Mohamad Audong said they were expecting an official announcement after Hari Raya.

He said Mapa members needed 15,000 workers and were applying for new intakes of Indonesians and Bangladeshis to work in the oil palm, rubber and coconut plantations.

“The peak harvesting season has just started and will last for the next five months. If we don’t get workers, the fruits will rot,” he said.

(Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the Dewan Rakyat on June 19 that the freeze had led to businesses losing RM24bil of which RM2bil was due to fruits left unharvested in the plantation sector.)

Mohamad said that not even a single foreign worker was hired to work in Mapa plantations during the Government’s rehiring programme because no one applied for it.

“The illegal workers already in the country would rather work in the services or manufacturing sectors,” he added.

Only 124,279 illegal workers out of the estimated 1.4 million in the country were reported to have been employed under the rehiring programme.

“The rehiring programme appeared to have not work,” he said.

MEF’s Shamsuddin said the rehiring programme was flawed.

The illegal foreign workers themselves, he said, should have been allowed to apply to be rehired, at no cost, instead of the employers doing so.

Subsequently, any employer with vacancies should be allowed to hire from the pool, he added.

For the long term, Shamsuddin acknowledged that employers must reduce their dependence on foreign workers through new technology.

He also pointed out that there were 500,000 unemployed Malaysians and called for this workforce to be maximised along with those above 60 years old who were still able to work.

“With the right national policy and incentive, we can reduce our need for foreign labour,” he said.

News Source: TheStar

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Being extremely enterprising, many have left their employment to start small-scale businesses in the major capitals of the country as government efforts to curb reliance on foreign labour fails.

The old scenario of foreign workers toiling in low skill jobs in the country might not be true anymore. Workers who have stayed in the country for a while might be prone to move to greener pastures.

If documented foreign workers are 14 per cent of the total workforce then we can easily deduce that both documented and undocumented foreign workers would easily constitute about 30 per cent of the nation’s workforce.

It is no use for the government to raise a hue and cry about the large presence of workers in the economy if no consistent effort is undertaken to reduce their numbers to manageable proportions.

If employers are bent on using cheap and docile foreign labour, then there is nothing that the government can do to alter things in favour of local workers.

Moreover skilled workers constitute merely 30 per cent of the entire workforce and this means that foreign workers, in the absence of controls, can easily compete with unskilled local workers.

In fact, in many establishments that rely on cheap labour, foreign workers are preferred to local workers simply because these foreign workers can easily be controlled and manipulated to the whims and fancies of employers.

Insofar as foreign workers are concerned, the government is more willing to bend over backwards to assist unscrupulous employers on the grounds of an artificially created “labour shortage” problem. At times the government might stop the flow of foreign workers temporarily, but the flow of foreign labour, both documented and undocumented, has become a permanent aspect of the Malaysian labour landscape.

The primary reason we depend on foreign labour is simply because of the nature of the economy. We have uneven or lopsided economic development of the country.

While there are modern sectors dominated by foreign multinationals, there are also sectors that engage in primitive accumulation, in other words, rely on the extraction of cheap labour. The co-existence of these two sectors, although very contradictory, has thwarted the Malaysian economy from developing rapidly and, more importantly, shedding its image of reliance on foreign cheap labour.

There is another dimension to the significant presence of foreign labour in the country. This has to do with the nature of cronyism and favouritism. Since quick money could be made from the recruitment of foreign labour, those close to politicians in the ruling parties have formed hundreds of companies to recruit foreign labour. Such recruitment is extremely profitable and those who apply for licenses are expected to reap handsome profits from the exploitation of foreign labour. Who really cares about their welfare and their well-being?

The Deputy Minister of Human Resources, Ismail Abdul Muttalib, should not complain about the large presence of foreign labour in the country. Instead, he should be initiating steps to reduce their number in the country.

But then, given the structural position of the Malaysian economy, sectors still dependent on unskilled labour and the close and continuing nexus between labour recruiters and politicians, it would be unimaginable to reduce the number of foreign workers.

Despite the extreme exploitation, many foreign workers are still glad to make Malaysia their home. Being extremely enterprising, many have left their employment to start small-scale businesses in the major capitals of the country.

In Penang, despite strict laws, foreigners seem rather apt at opening up business establishments in George Town. A number of restaurants and grocery shops have been opened over the years. In some areas, the locals have rented their premises for foreigners to start their business.

While the mainstay of foreign workers in the country could be in the wages sector, the economic activates of foreign workers have become quite diversified over the years. In years to come, Malaysians will be frequenting restaurants and business enterprises run by foreign workers especially those from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Vietnam.

As it is, foreign workers have taken over as cooks and waiters in many of the restaurants in the country.

Well, if we can’t beat them, might as well join them in their efforts.

P Ramasamy is Deputy Chief Minister II Penang.

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News Source: FMT

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