PETALING JAYA: A shorter recruitment process for foreign workers should be implemented as soon as possible so that efforts by employers to rebuild their businesses can be on track, says the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).
Its president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said the government made a bold choice in streamlining the foreign worker application procedure and if it is to be implemented, the nation would be on the right track to reach the targeted GDP growth of between 4% and 5% this year.
“The efforts to quickly fill up the gap for foreign employees’ shortages will be able to assist the nation to be more competitive and improve its competitiveness ranking in the IMD Competitiveness Index where in 2022 Malaysia was at 32 out of 64 countries,” he said.
He hoped that the process to bring in foreign workers would be more efficient and smoother without any delay and the related high cost.
“In the past, businesses had been assured of the KiSS approach but this never worked,” he said, referring to Keep it Simple and Sweet.
“MEF hopes that the unity government and the new Cabinet team will work together to ensure employers do not suffer the same consequences.”
On Thursday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the government was looking to reduce the period for the recruitment process, including, among others, the submission of application by employers, approvals, issuance of visa and medical check-ups, to fewer than 30 days.
The conditions and procedures for foreign worker quota applications will also be relaxed, which include continuous efforts to facilitate evaluation of qualifications to employ foreign workers, conditions, quota approval, immigration processes and security screening.
In welcoming the government’s pledge to shorten the recruitment process, National Association of Human Resources Malaysia (Pusma) president Zarina Ismail said this would help ease the labour shortage in multiple sectors.
She said the shorter time frame could help reduce bureaucracy in the recruitment process, adding that one of the areas where the procedure could be shortened was documentation.
“Currently, we have to prepare multiple documents. I understand that some are needed but there are some documents that we have to submit multiple times to different departments.
“We should only submit the documents to one department and it should be the one liaising with other departments to shorten the process,” she said, adding that the Labour Department would be best for this job.
Also welcoming the government’s move, Association of Employment Agencies Malaysia (Papa) vice-president Suresh Tan asked for standardisation in the hiring process.
He said currently, the Immigration Department in different states had different standard operating procedures, with certain states taking more time than others, which would lead to additional cost to employers.
“We hope to be part of the think tank team should the government create a new working committee because we are the people on the ground who deal directly with employers,” he said.
SME Association of Malaysia president Ding Hong Sing called for the government to engage with stakeholders to understand the problems on the ground.
Last year, out of the 1.6 million applications received, the government approved 676,070 foreign workers.
As of Dec 31, there were 1.45 million temporary foreign worker pass holders in the country, including 316,446 new recruits hired last year.
