PETALING JAYA: While trade associations and recruitment agencies welcomed the move to expedite the conditional approval for hiring foreign workers, they said details were needed on the new process.
SME Association of Malaysia president Ding Hong Sing called for clearer guidelines on what the “three-day conditional approval” entailed.
“We need to know what is being done in those three days and the procedures required.
“It would also be better if approvals for foreign workers’ visas could be sped up as this will allow our labour force to increase.
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“This would help boost our productivity, which would improve the economy,” he added.
Ding said he hopes that all the required documentation could be submitted to the Home Ministry directly to speed up the recruitment process.
Association of Employment Agencies Malaysia vice-president Suresh Tan said the recalibration efforts were welcome, adding that there was still room for improvement on several fronts.
“One would be the cost – the current cost to legalise foreign workers can be more than RM4,000 when you include the government levy and compounds.
“This is not a small amount for small and medium enterprises and the government could consider reducing the required deposit and compound fee,” he said, adding that it would encourage more businesses to come forward and legalise foreign workers.
Suresh said the documentation process should also be simpler when it came to recalibrating foreign workers.
“In this context, documents such as business licences by the Companies Commission of Malaysia, proof of Social Security Organisation (Socso) contributions as well as tenancy agreements should suffice when it comes to the first approval.
“Subsequent documents such as business licences by local councils could be presented later during the foreign workers renewal process,” he added.
On the conditional approval of foreign workers within three days, Suresh said a streamlined standard operating procedure should be ironed out across all related stakeholders.
“This includes consolidated measures not only from our local authorities but also those of embassies (of the countries) where the workers are from.
“This creates a faster recruitment process overall and could potentially be done within two months, which itself is a big improvement,” he said, adding that the previous process could take up to four months due to the various procedures across related stakeholders.
He also called for a single online platform that consolidated all related agencies under one roof in order to speed up the recruitment process.
“Employers, too, should only employ the services of licensed employment agencies that they can obtain from the Human Resources Ministry or associations such as ourselves to prevent any chance of being cheated,” he said.
With at least 2,000 restaurants forced to close down amid the Covid-19 pandemic due to the labour crunch, Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) president Datuk Jawahar Ali Taib Khan said the announcement on faster conditional approval comes as much needed relief for restaurant operators.
He said employers were previously required to advertise for an opening and this usually took about a month. This process has now been done away with.
Jawahar added that although the previous administration emphasised prioritising job offers for Malaysians, the reality was that the local uptake for jobs in the industry was “rather poor”.
He said restaurants were unable to operate on a 24-hour basis due to the labour shortage, and the only time they were able to operate this way was during the FIFA World Cup late last year.
He added that the easing of the recruitment process will prompt new restaurants to pop up while those that have closed down were likely to resume operations, and Presma members might see a 20% growth in revenue.
Malaysian Palm Oil Association council member and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil co-chair Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen said the palm oil industry welcomes any measures that will reduce the layers of bureaucracy.
This, he said, would enable businesses to act efficiently in times when competition was increasing and costs rising.
“Ultimately, this will facilitate our ability to compete in international markets, which will be of mutual benefit to the company and its employees,” he added.
