About 1,000 private recruitment agencies (APS) are claiming that they will be facing undue business risks as users of a new domestic worker recruitment and management portal – 3sMalaysia.com.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, leaders from Malaysia’s four associations that represent the majority of APS in the country voiced their concerns over the recruitment flow (see graphic) and strongly opposed requirements for full payments to be made through the portal before contracts were signed.
The four association’s leaders were among those who attended a briefing conducted by 3S Malaysia Sdn Bhd on March 2, that was organised by the Labour Department of Peninsular Malaysia (JTKSM).
The group said the company had developed the 3sMalaysia.com portal and briefed them on the new process flow of the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers into Malaysia.
Foo Yong Hooi, president of the Association of Employment Agencies, Malaysia (PAPA) expressed concern over how the funds would be disbursed to their Indonesian counterparts and what would happen in the event of delays in disbursement.
Foo said they had also asked for solutions to several situations that could arise from APS having to make advance payments through the portal, like not receiving the number of workers that were paid for or having to wait exceedingly long for workers to arrive while their funds were tied up in the portal.
“JTKSM said they would consider engaging an insurance agency to provide coverage of these risks in the processes including if a domestic worker should run away,” he said, adding that it was neither a likely nor a wise solution.
He said the APS wanted the portal to only process the applications and leave the payments to be conducted in a business-to-business manner.
“If any APS acceded the fee capped at RM15,000, employers would be able to complain about them and JTKSM could take serious action as APS were licensed with the Human Resources Ministry (MOHR).
APS to manoeuvre two separate portals
On March 3, a Malaysiakini report revealed that the 3sMalaysia.com portal would replace the Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS) in the management of recruitment and placement of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia through its My One Channel System (MyOCS).
However, in a sighted draft of the MyOCS, Malaysiakini reported on March 14 that the recruitment process would flow through two portals – the 3sMalaysia and the Malaysian Immigration Department-linked (JIM) portal, FWCMS.
The MyOCS was introduced as a mandatory clause in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the “Employment and Protection of Domestic Workers” currently being negotiated between Malaysia and Indonesia.
MyOCS was described as “a product by MOHR acting as a portal to recruit foreign workers”.
Unfortunately, following the publication of that report, the portal 3sMalaysia.com was no longer accessible and opened to an “Error 522” page, which indicated that its server was inaccessible.
The ultimate benefactor
According to company filings, 3S Malaysia Sdn Bhd was incorporated in 2018 with “personal development course/motivational”, listed as its nature of business.
Its three owners were 3S Asia Sdn Bhd, a holding company incorporated in June last year, TAB Capital Sdn Bhd, an investment holding company and an individual, Yap Kon Min.
Among the directors of 3S Malaysia Sdn Bhd were Yap, Jimmy Udjaja and Tengku Abu Bakar Ahmad Tengku Abdullah. Tengku Abu Bakar was also the majority shareholder of TAB Capital.
It was revealed that Udjaja was among five other foreign shareholders of 3S Asia Sdn Bhd, with him being the majority shareholder.
Malaysiakini also sighted the logos of the Indonesian Ministry of Labour and the Fomema logo beneath the bold words “our partners” at the bottom of the landing page when the portal was still accessible.
Meanwhile, Yap and Abu Bakar Ahmad Abdullah were among nine directors in Fomema Sdn Bhd which in turn was solely owned by Fomema Global Sdn Bhd, which was wholly owned by Fomema Holdings Sdn Bhd.
One part of the shares in Fomema Holdings Sdn Bhd belonged to Tacorp Holdings Sdn Bhd, with four individual shareholders who were locals.
The other part of the shares were held by an overseas entity, Truewise Technology Ltd.
The trail stopped here as there was no clear ultimate beneficial owner to Truewise Technology Ltd.
This and the fact that 3S Malaysia was partly owned by a company (3S Asia) whose shareholders were foreign nationals raised concerns as the portal essentially dealt with confidential information belonging to Malaysian citizens who fell under the earning bracket qualified to hire domestic workers.
This would include a vast number of civil servants, wealthy Malaysians, politicians and business owners.
JTKSM is responsible
However, the press conference also confirmed an earlier Malaysiakini report that the portal may have been endowed to JTKSM by 3S Malaysia but whether the government department would be operating the portal and collecting the fee payments was unclear.
Foo, who headed the press conference, said the JTKSM representatives who were present at the briefing by 3S Malaysia said they would take note of the numerous objections by the APS representatives, promising to revert after the bilateral agreement between Malaysia and Indonesia was inked.
“We don’t know who would be operating the portal,” said Foo, adding that Udjaja was among the two individuals who briefed them and not JTKSM representatives.
Other leaders present at the press conference were National Association of Private Employment Agencies Malaysia (PAPSMA) secretary-general Sukumaran Nair, National Association of Human Resources Malaysia (Pusma) deputy president Chang Khee Choong, Malaysia National Association of Employment Agencies (Pikap) Fiona Low and PAPA deputy president Mastorah Naim.
The group also questioned the recruitment fee capping of RM15,000 per domestic worker and asked that it be “dropped to less than RM10,000 because it was a huge burden on employers who may have to pay monthly wages of up to RM1,500,” said Nair.
“We don’t set the fee. The Indonesian recruitment companies together with 3S Malaysia had set the fee,” he said.
Malaysiakini has sent its questions to Udjaja as requested but has not received a response at the time of publication.
MOU to be signed on April 1
The MoU had been deferred for the second time this year since negotiations to revise its contents began in 2016.
During a press conference in Parliament yesterday, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said a new date had been fixed for April 1.
Prior to that, during Parliament Question Time on March 8, DAP's Seputeh MP Teresa Kok referred to a Malaysiakini report on March 3 and asked for an explanation on how the construction of the 3sMalaysia.com portal was approved.
Additionally, Kok asked Saravanan to clarify if the company was engaged through an open tender process and if so, to explain how many companies had participated in the process.
Kok also asked if 3S Asia Sdn Bhd would also be engaged in the recruitment, training, placement and repatriation of workers.
However, Saravanan had yet to respond to all of the questions posed to him in Parliament as of March 14, with Kok’s question being one of them. He had assured written replies to the queries. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.