A mistake to relax hiring rules on migrant workers, says NGO

 

Kris Foo is president of the national association of private employment agencies, or Papsma.

PETALING JAYA: The government made a mistake last year in relaxing the conditions for employers in five sectors to hire migrant workers, according to the national association of private employment agencies (Papsma).

Papsma president Kris Foo said the government’s decision in January last year allowed the process of bringing in migrant workers to be expedited.

This then led to certain employers taking advantage of the relaxed rules by requesting quotas of migrant workers that exceeded their needs, she claimed.

Foo also said the government frequently changed policy on migrant workers, leaving room for manipulation and exploitation by deceitful parties, citing a case involving 171 Bangladeshis in Johor last month.

“The government should instead be firmer with its policies. You can’t open up (applications) for a year and then close it, as it would cause worry to employers, who have long-term plans in mind.

“Because foreign workers are hard to obtain, when applications are opened, some employers would request for a larger quota than they really need fearing that the government may close (applications) again,” she told FMT.

In January 2023, Putrajaya loosened the conditions for the hiring of migrant workers in the manufacturing, construction, plantations, agriculture, as well as food and beverage sectors.

Then human resources minister V Sivakumar said applications through the ministry’s foreign worker centralised management system would be processed and approved within three working days.

Employers were allowed to take in foreign workers from 15 source countries based on their capabilities and needs, without having to fulfil employment pre-conditions.

However, just two months later, Sivakumar announced that all applications and processing for migrant workers were suspended until further notice.

Foo joined calls for the human resources ministry to fully manage foreign workers, instead of sharing functions with the home ministry. She also urged Putrajaya to strengthen the role of the labour department and to increase its manpower.

She said the department handled most of the migrant workers’ affairs but was restricted in its authority and manpower.

She also suggested blacklisting employers who fail to pay migrant workers salaries or provide proper housing for them, warning that failing to tackle these issues could see Malaysia’s ranking in the US Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report drop back to the lowest rung of Tier 3.

Malaysia was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List from 2018 to 2020. It was downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest tier, in 2021 but returned to Tier 2 in 2022, in the latest report released last June. - FMT