Get your act together, home and HR ministries told

 

MICCI executive director Shaun Cheah says the labour shortage is critical and has adversely impacted the country’s revenue, despite export demands.

PETALING JAYA: Following Indonesia’s temporary freeze on workers entering Malaysia, a business group has urged the home and human resources ministries to buckle down and sort out the country’s labour issues.

The Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) said the decision was a “double whammy” for many sectors which were already facing supply chain disruptions.

“Industries are trying to recover and are pushing to fulfil orders. Indonesian migrant workers are needed, especially in the construction and plantation sectors.

“The home ministry and human resources ministries should get their act together and solve this issue,” MICCI executive director Shaun Cheah told FMT.

Indonesia had cited a breach in a worker recruitment deal signed between Jakarta and Putrajaya for its decision to impose the freeze.

Indonesian ambassador Hermono said this was due to the Malaysian immigration department’s continued use of the Maid Online System (MOS) to facilitate the recruitment of Indonesian maids.

Cheah stressed that the labour shortage in the country was critical and had adversely impacted the country’s revenue, despite export demands.

“The government seems to be concentrating on aggressive tax audits and devising innovative sources of indirect tax instead of getting the export and tourism sectors to generate the revenues,” he said.

Association of Employment Agencies Malaysia president Foo Yong Hooi said the freeze was expected as long as the immigration department continued to use MOS.

“The Indonesian ambassador told the four employment agency associations this at a meeting a few months ago. He warned us that private agencies found to be using MOS would be banned from getting accreditation,” he said.

He said the human resources ministry had also warned them to not get involved, or their licences would be revoked.

Foo said the freeze would be damaging to all sectors and all parties involved, specifically domestic workers and private employment agencies.

“It is unfair. Indonesia should allow the manufacturing and plantation sectors to employ workers as the issue with MOS does not involve formal sectors,” he said.

He also said the Cabinet should discuss the matter and resolve the MOS issue as soon as possible.

Home minister Hamzah Zainudin had downplayed Indonesia’s decision to freeze sending its citizens to work in Malaysia, saying it could recruit foreign workers from other countries, including Bangladesh. - FMT