PUTRAJAYA: Reduced dependency on foreign workers and more and better paying jobs for the locals.
With these objectives in mind, the Government will go all out to reduce the number of foreign workers in the country with set targets and strict enforcement of Home Affairs Ministry regulations.
By reducing the number of foreign workers in many of the industries, employers will be forced to hire local workers at “reasonable” salaries.
“We are going to re-look at the policy of managing foreign workers in this country. We have a total of 2.3 million foreign workers, students and expatriates and short-term workers from southern Thailand; we want to lower (the number) to the 2006 figure of 1.8 million,” ministry secretary-general Datuk Raja Azahar Raja Abdul Manap told Sunday Star.
The ministry's target is 1.8 million foreign workers by next year and 1.5 million by 2015. However, it faces a dilemma because it has approved applications from employers last year to bring in 200,000 foreign workers this year.
The ministry also has consider the manpower needs of the Government’s development projects such as the Iskandar Development Region and the Northern Corridor Economic Region.
Only three industries – construction, manufacturing and plantations – that are heavily dependent on foreign workers because locals do not want to work in them will be exempted from the strict measures.
“For others like the service industry (hotel, restaurants, petrol stations, cleaning services, etc) and agriculture, we will come down hard.”
For a start, effective now, said Raja Azahar, the ministry would not approve the work permit of any foreign worker who has been in the country for five years or more.
This alone could reduce the number of foreign workers by 200,000 this year.
“In the employment contract, the permit is for 3+1+1. After three years, we allow annual extensions. We were liberal in the past, but now we will be very strict.”
To ensure compliance and to weed out illegal workers, the ministry has received approval in principal to beef up its enforcement officers from 1,500 to close to 5,000 to be set up as inspectorate teams, each covering specific industries.
He said skilled workers could work in the country for a maximum of 10 years but they must have qualifications recognised by the Government.
“We have been lax with the ruling to allow employers to cut costs with cheaper foreign labour but now, they have to turn to locals and pay a reasonable salary based on supply and demand,” he added.
It was reported recently that foreigners took up 20% of the 200,000-300,000 new jobs created last year, especially in the labour sector, according to the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER). .
Domestic help, however, is one sector that may be affected in the effort to reduce foreign workers.
“We are looking into the possibility that only those who earn more than RM5,000 a month (currently RM3,000) be allowed to employ foreign maids. This issue is still being studied by the Economic Planning Unit.
“At the same time, we are talking to the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to assist in the setting up of child-minding centres that employ foreigners, so we can reduce dependency on domestic maids,” said Raja Azahar.
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