[UPDATED] Govt eases foreign workers employment, scraps pre-conditions

KUALA LUMPUR – Where previously employers were required to fulfil certain pre-conditions to qualify them to hire foreign workers, the government is now providing leeway as it looks to address the severe shortage of manpower in the industry.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said employers will now be allowed to bring in foreign workforce from 15 source countries based on their capability and need, without needing to fulfil the previously imposed conditions for hiring and quota qualification.

This, he said, will be implemented under a new Relaxation of Employment of Foreign Workers Plan, which was agreed upon and decided in a special meeting on the management of foreign workers today chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The plan, which is limited to the manufacturing, construction, plantation, services, agriculture, foreign domestic employees, and mining and quarrying sectors, is only a temporary policy and will be reviewed in the future.

Saifuddin, however, said employers must still adhere to all conditions as stipulated under the Employment Act 1955, including compliance with minimum wage.

“Our commitment is that when employers file their application (for foreign labour), we will give immediate conditional approval in less than three days,” he said in a press conference today in Putrajaya.

He was joined by Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, although Anwar was not present at the press conference.

Elaborating on the plan, Saifuddin said the government will only conduct inspections periodically on the hiring companies after the migrant labourers begin their work in the country to see if there are any violations of the law.

“If we find that the employers do not comply (with the law), we will act then, compared to previously, where they have to comply (with the conditions first before they are allowed to hire).”

He said details of the new plan will be shared by the Home Ministry in the near future, while reiterating that the easing of migrant labour hiring conditions is not permanent, but merely an “unprecedented” measure to fulfil the need for economic growth.

According to the minister, the country will see a GDP growth of 1% should it be able to expedite the hiring of foreign workers in the relevant sectors.

Recalibration programme extended

Other than the easing of hiring conditions, Saifuddin announced that the government also agreed to extend the recalibration programme, which regularises undocumented immigrants as legal foreign workers for hire by eligible employers, by another year.

It was scheduled to end on December 31.

He said the move will offer a much-needed solution to the workers’ shortage while simultaneously providing the government with millions of ringgit in revenue by way of compound payments by undocumented immigrants who choose to be employed in the country.

“We charge them a certain fee, as a compound for not having complete travel documents. Last year alone, it contributed over RM700 million as government revenue.

“This way, we get to facilitate those without proper documents, the employment sector will be filled, we get their records, and we generate revenue.”

Saifuddin said in the original recalibration programme ending December 2022, a total of 418,649 undocumented immigrants were registered as legal foreign workers, while 295,425 others volunteered to be returned to their home countries.

Separately, he said the government has agreed to send a delegation to selected source countries offering foreign labour to Malaysia to update them on the new, improved policies.

“This is so that they understand that we intend to facilitate hiring, and we seek that they too facilitate us, based on their respective labour systems and policies.”

The delegation will be headed by Saifuddin and Sivakumar, and will include representatives of the relevant government agencies.

When asked if the incoming influx of foreign labour will shut doors for local jobseekers, Saifuddin said this is not the case, as the intake of the former are meant to fill up vacancies that Malaysians are typically uninterested in.

He added that the government has also not exceeded the projection set out by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) under the 12th Malaysian Plan for the country to hire not more than 2.4 million foreign workers, or about 15% of the total workforce.

“Certainly, the EPU has its rationale for doing that. But the fact is that through our meetings with the relevant ministries, they have said that if the foreign workers target is not fulfilled, it will have an impact on the industry.”

Meanwhile, Saifuddin said regardless of the hiring of foreigners, the government will ensure that the rule of law and national security will continue to be safeguarded. – The Vibes, January 10, 2023