KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 — Putrajaya's plan to bring in 1.5 million workers from Bangladesh will encourage dependence on cheap labour and hamper the country's technological progress, said DAP's Liew Chin Tong today.

Citing the decision to bar foreign workers as petrol station attendants as an example, Chin pointed out that the relaxation of the rule has largely reversed any gains in automation made to accommodate the initial ruling in the 1990s.

“Twenty years later, a foreign labourer will offer to clean one's windscreen while one pumps patrol; car wash machines have disappeared and in its place one finds many manual car wash services.

“Reducing the number of foreign unskilled labour is the cornerstone of building a nation that is founded upon skill, innovation and superb technology, not cheap labour,” he said in a statement today.

The Kluang MP further said the plan would harm the welfare of Malaysian workers by depressing wage growth, amid the country's aim to escape the middle-income trap.

Liew said the abundance of cheap foreign workers has kept wages stagnant at the lower-income levels, which he claimed had a knockon effect on those above them.

Among others, he cited pay levels for new lawyers and school leavers, which he said has seen little growth in the past three decades.

“The only way to reverse this is to pay those at the lowest ― such as garbage collectors ― much better so that everyone else gets better pay,” Liew said.

This would only be possible if those in the lowest pay levels evolve from cheap manual labour and into skilled workers dealing with automation.

Putrajaya is facing resistance and criticism from several civil and trade groups over its plan to bring in the foreign workers that it said was needed for the 3D jobs that Malaysians are purportedly snubbing.

It initially said it will review the plan following the public outcry, but proceeded to sign a memorandum of understanding with Dhaka yesterday to import some 1.5 million workers from Bangladesh over the next three years for employment in a variety of sectors.