KUALA LUMPUR: More than 100 industry associations and chambers have appealed to the government to extend the legalisation deadline for foreign workers and suspend the on-going raids.
The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) said on Friday that 109 trade bodies had jointly submitted the appeal to the Ministers of Home Affairs and Human Resources over the foreign workers rehiring programme and minimum wages issue.
In its three points request, it called for:
* Extension of legalisation period for six months based on the 6P Amnesty programme conditions;
* Suspension of on-going raids until the legalisation process is completed; and
* Any proposed increase in MW rate should take effect only in 2019.
The FMM said there was a lot of disruptions following the termination of the rehiring programme on June 30, 2018 and the immediate launch of Ops Mega 3.0.
The nationwide crackdown to detain illegal foreign workers had affected genuine employers whose applications to legalise workers had been delayed, mainly by third party agents. These employers, it said, were badly affected and their business operations disrupted.
They requested applications be handled directly by and submitted to Immigration counters nationwide, or online if a system is available.
“Conditions for legalisation should adopt the 6P Amnesty programme which required workers to be medically fit, have valid passport for 12 months, no criminal record and at minimal costs,” it said.
There should not be any third party agents or service providers involved, they said.
They also urged for a clear and transparent process and client charter to ensure fast, efficient and clean processing. Work permits for legalised workers should be valid for at least one year.
Meanwhile, the relevant embassies should facilitate quick issuance of passports to their nationals.
“Employers under voluntary surrender should not be blacklisted. There should not be restrictions or freeze on recruiting new workers from source countries while legalisation is in progress,” it said.
Instead, they said there should be strict enforcement once the legalisation period ends and open recruitment system for all; and a redress mechanism to address human trafficking.
If possible, the trade bodies urged for one government body or ministry to handle all human resource matters in the country including foreign workers s to ensure fair, comprehensive, long term and holistic manpower planning.
As for the minimum wages, they urged the Pakatan Harapan Government to honour its election promise to share the increase in minimum wages with employers.
Current MW rates should not increase immediately to RM1,500 but spread over the five year period with the first increase in 2019.
However, the intention to standardise MW rates in Sabah and Sarawak with the Peninsular should be reviewed as the former would not be able to sustain the significant increase.
“Concurrently, the allowable monthly housing deduction for foreign workers should be increased from RM50 to RM150.
“Implement multi-tiered (market-based) levy mechanism including ploughing back levy collected to support industry’s automation and adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies; but in the meantime, levy burden should revert back to foreign workers.
“The definition of miniumn wage should be reviewed as total remuneration i.e. basic wage and all fixed cash payments and allowances defined as wages under Section 2 of Employment Act 1955 (EA).
“Miniumn wage increase must commensurate with productivity gains with greater effort towards implementing the productivity-linked wage system,” they urged.
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