BY HAND
5 October 2022
YB Datuk Seri M. Saravanan,
Minister of Human Resources,
Ministry Of Human Resources Malaysia,
Putrajaya.
Yang Berhormat,
The issue of severe worker shortage, especially migrant labour is so acute that companies, especially SMEs, have suffered huge losses or closed down with the positive growth trajectory of the country may be adversely impacted. Last month, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association(MPOA) estimated only 47,000 foreign workers have entered Malaysia or 12% of the 385,000 approvals by Saravanan since January 2022 for all industry sectors. There is no point giving approvals if only 12% of the foreign workers approved enter the country.
MPOA has stated that the palm oil industry needs 120,000 foreign workers whilst Malaysia’s E&E sector needs at least 30,000 workers urgently. The severe worker shortage has incurred losses of RM33.5 billion to the plantation sector, glove and auto spare parts industry alone. Other industries will also record losses of tens of billions of ringgit.
On the eve of this meeting, the Human Resource Ministry has suddenly announced approval for 541,315 foreign workers until Sept 26, of which 436,613 have already paid the levy. The Ministry said taking into account the existing 1.3 million foreign workers already in Malaysia and the approved quota of 541,315, the number has almost met the industry’s total demand of 1.8 million for foreign labour. However, this has no relevance with the reality on the ground of businesses suffering from manpower shortage with even hawkers requesting customer’s self-service and fishmongers in the market not able to clean/fillet fishes for customers.
Contractors in the entire construction industry contradict and dispute the Human Resource Ministry’s claim that the foreign labour shortage has been resolved. The Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) and nine construction associations, said that the continued foreign labour shortage has stifled the recovery of the construction industry, noting that they are facing higher interest rates.
The 10 contractors associations urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to intervene in reverting the foreign worker entry process to the Construction Labour Exchange Centre Bhd (CLAB) to handle foreign workers’ issues without the participation of the Ministry of Human Resource to simplify the entry of foreign workers immediately. CLAB is an organisation established in July 2002 by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) to bring in and redistribute foreign workers for companies and organisations in Malaysia.
The other 9 associations supporting MBAM’s call for the replacement and exclusion of the Ministry of Human Resource from handling foreign workers are Persatuan Kontraktor Bumiputera Malaysia (PKBM), Persatuan Kontraktor Melayu Malaysia (PKMM), Gabungan Kontraktor Bumiputera Wibawa Malaysia (GBC), Persatuan Kontraktor India Malaysia (PKIM), Royal Institution of Surveyors, Malaysia (RISM), Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (REHDA) Malaysia, Association of Consulting Engineers, Malaysia (ACEM), Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) and the Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP). “Queuing in person at the Ministry to get quota applications for foreign workers should be a thing of the past. The lack of action to really solve this problem is appalling.”, it said.
We hope that the Ministry can explain why they have failed to deliver its promise on online processing, speed up the employer interview process at One Stop Centres (OSCs) according to zones and states, or give approvals within one week under the Foreign Workers Centralised Management system(FWCMS). The allegations of wrongdoings or abuses in the systems will be dealt with by my 2 colleagues with me today, Member of Parliament M. Kulasegaran and Ngeh Koo Ham. The Ministry must handle the processing of foreign workers in a transparent, accountable and professional manner that will instil public confidence in the competent delivery of services.
Yours faithfully,
LIM GUAN ENG
CHAIRMAN