Ministry to review procedures in hiring foreigners

The Home Ministry will review all procedures in hiring foreign workers to ensure that the workers will not fall victim to suppression.

Its minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the review would include matters concerning insurance coverage and salary payable to the workers with respect to work done under the contract of service.

"(At present) foreign workers have an unpaid medical bill of RM26 million at public hospitals in the country and this will be among the matters to be given focus in the review," he told a press conference after the ministry's monthly assembly in Putrajaya today.

The minister said various aspects involving the service of foreign workers should not be taken lightly as their helps were needed to develop the economy in Malaysia.

He said the ministry would also review the security bond in the hiring of foreign guards so that the employers would be more responsible in ensuring that the workers would not overstay their legal welcome.

Ahmad Zahid said the ministry would also look at the foreign workers hiring procedures used in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Singapore in formulating the best system for Malaysia.

He said the UAE was an exemplary country for management of foreign workers as they were currently having 4.6 million foreign workers.

In another development, the minister called on the people not to misinterpret his closed-door meeting with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (seated, right in photo) yesterday.

"We met to discuss on humanitarian basis and hence, political interests must be set aside. I have read some comments about the meeting in Twitter, Facebook and blogs, some of them were positive and some were of course, negative," he said.

Yesterday, Ahmad Zahid convened the closed-door meeting with Lim and family members of the man believed to be buried alive in collapse of the lightning arrestor pole in Jalan Macalister, Penang, to discuss the possibility of an inquest and assistance to be given to the family.

The victim, 44-year-old Lim Chin Aik, who drove a grey Honda City, had gone to pick up his youngest daughter from the Penang Chinese Girls High School in Jalan Gottlieb when the mishap occurred at about 6.30pm on Thursday.

– Bernama