GEORGE TOWN, March 14 — The Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) has expressed surprise over Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s suggestion for employers to seek the assistance of the congress, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) and the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) to find Malaysians to fill job vacancies instead of hiring foreign workers.
MTUC Penang division executive secretary K. Veeriah said the government should not put such a responsibility on the organisations.
“It is the responsibility of civil societies to point out the weaknesses in government policies and protect the interests of citizens and to avoid socials ills arising from foreign workers and undocumented migrants.
“It is the responsibility of government agencies like the Immigration Department and Human Resources Ministry to carry out legalising exercises of illegal workers in the country,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He was responding to a statement by Zahid Hamidi yesterday over the poor response to the ongoing rehiring programme for employers to obtain valid work permits for illegal migrant workers.
Zahid said employers had been given ample opportunity to rehire their workers, yet they continuously chose to ignore the issue.
He added that the government had been pressured and criticised by many sectors, including MTUC, FMM and MEF.
Veeriah said the presence of thousands of undocumented migrant workers in the country was the result of ineffectiveness of government enforcement agencies.
He added that human trafficking was another issue the government had to address to curb the undocumented migrant workers problem in the country.
