SEREMBAN, July 29 — Malaysian employers should no longer be dependent on foreign workers, said National Human Resource Organisation (Pusma) president Zarina Ismail.
She expressed the concern following a decision by the Nepalese government in imposing an indefinite moratorium on Nepalese workers from seeking employment in Malaysia.
This, she said, was due to the monopoly of labour recruitment process by a Malaysian private company in the source country,
“We are afraid that other source countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia may follow suit. In the end, we will be facing an acute shortage of manpower,” she said in a statement here today.
She said foreign workers are supposed to be employed on a temporary basis, but now they had become the manpower backbone of Malaysia.
“Whenever there is a moratorium on foreign workers, our government will be under tremendous pressure from the industry and its associations.
“The employers and its associations should instead be planning how to develop and train local workers with government agencies to match with industry needs,” she added.
She said there was no denying that local workers were difficult to hire and were more expensive.
“But for the sake of national interest, we have to provide jobs for the 500,000 unemployed graduates who are suffering not only in financial capacities but also on their morale development,” she added.
Zarina said the government and the Human Resource Minister should reform the local workers hiring industry to make it more structured and professional, and also to enforce legal action against illegal recruitment agencies.
She said the government should also make it mandatory for employers to provide free hostel accommodation to local migrant workers.
“If the government continues to allow foreign workers to play major roles in our economic development, local employees will suffer and choose to leave the country to work abroad.
“Pusma hopes the new government will review the national foreign workers’ policy and instate the approval quota to be directly under the Ministry of Human Resource, instead of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” she added. — Bernama
