KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians are crossing the straits to do Singapore’s dirty work for better pay, while relying on foreign labour to do similar work for them.
More than half a million Malaysians across all sectors opt to work in the city-state as the pay is about five times the amount offered by neighbouring countries, Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said in a parliamentary reply Tuesday. That’s what makes them willing to take on even “3D work” – dirty, dangerous, difficult – that Malaysian companies are finding difficult to hire locals to do.