Don’t privatise online system for foreign workers, says NGO

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress says an online system would help the government keep tabs on how many foreign workers are in the country.

PETALING JAYA: A human rights group has welcomed the government’s proposal for an online system to handle monetary transactions and applications for foreign workers, but warns against privatising or outsourcing the project to a third-party firm.

Adrian Pereira, who heads the North-South Initiative, said the system could be managed by government agencies such as Mimos Bhd, the national applied research and development centre.

He told FMT that there were enough IT-savvy civil servants to manage such systems, voicing concerns over abuse and wastage of funds if the project is outsourced.

This follows the announcement by Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran yesterday that the government was considering adopting such a system.

Kula said the system would reduce the necessity for officers to meet members of the public directly, which could open the door to corruption.

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) also welcomed the proposal, saying the system would make it easier for the government to keep track of the number of foreign workers in the country.

But even if the online system takes off, MTUC secretary-general J Solomon said, the government should not forgo other recruitment measures such as interviews and medical check-ups for candidates.

“Interview sessions are still important for employers,” he said. “We still need that.”

Last year, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government would work to establish a single system for the recruitment of foreign workers without differentiating between the source countries.

The 2016 rehiring programme for undocumented workers was stopped last June.

A total of 744,942 illegal foreign workers and 83,919 employers had registered under the programme as of May 28, 2018. - FMT