Employers call for lower fees to hire Bangladeshi workers

 

A new labour agreement has been signed with Bangladesh, ending a three-year freeze on the intake of workers from the country

GEORGE TOWN: The Malaysian Employers Federation has called for lower fees to be levied when hiring workers from Bangladesh, fearing that the cost might reach more than RM10,000 a worker.

MEF president Syed Hussain Syed Husman said the proposed fees under a new labour agreement with Bangladesh would be too high for employers to bear as they were already reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Officially, an employer would have to pay RM7,593 for each Bangladeshi worker, but if the agent’s fees in the home country were included, the cost could go beyond RM10,000, he said.

FMT reported on Saturday that employers, not agents, would be made to shoulder most of the responsibility to ensure the workers meet all the requirements relating to their entry and employment here.

However, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers said employers had always borne all the costs to hire foreign workers, including incidental expenses such as medical and insurance fees and settling down charges.

A new five-year agreement between Malaysia and Bangladesh was signed on Sunday, ending a freeze imposed in September 2018. Details of the agreement were not revealed.

Syed Hussain said labour costs should be held to a reasonable level for the next two to three years as companies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

He urged the government to place all matters related to the hiring of foreign workers under the human resources ministry. “A one-stop centre under the ministry would be able to resolve most of the issues of foreign workers,” he told FMT.

At present, the home and human resources ministries were involved, and a lot of time and cost were wasted on bureaucracy, he said.

He also urged the government to review the multi-tier levy system to be less taxing to employers.

He said oil palm plantations had a shortage of 75,000-odd workers, and many construction projects were also falling behind schedule. Although the government had approved the intake of 32,000 new foreign workers in September, those workers were nowhere to be seen.

FMM said the reported new requirements were no surprise. However, a well-defined, structured and transparent fee schedule was needed, especially on Covid-related matters.

Labour rights activist Andy Hall said there had been no transparency on the deal with Bangladesh, and feared a return of syndicated recruitment activities and the risk of debt bondage and forced labour.

“The governments should not stay silent on details of the agreement negotiated. So much is at stake. There are many doubts, distrust about the integrity of the process, which is yet to be addressed,” he said. - FMT