Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai
PETALING JAYA: There is an urgent need to set up a single online system to ensure more transparency and greater efficiency for foreign worker recruitment, says Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM).
FMM president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai said a unified system is essential in improving the efficiency of the foreign worker employment process.
Soh said there is a need to consolidate the management of foreign workers under a single agency that would oversee the entire hiring of foreign workers from recruitment to repatriation.
He suggested that this could be achieved through a unified online platform, which would eliminate the current inefficiencies caused by fragmented management.
“It is unclear now if the entire foreign worker hiring process would come under a single online system or there would be multiple systems involved given that the initial quota approval would still be from Human Resources Ministry,” he said yesterday.
FMM was referring to the announcement by the Human Resources Ministry which has abolished its foreign workers management division (BPPA) and transferred its functions to the Home Ministry effective Aug 1.
BPPA had managed the Foreign Workers One-Stop-Centre (OSC) since 2022, which reviews and approves foreign worker quotas and recruitment through the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS). Previously, the functions of the division were under the Home Ministry.
The OSC was established to process foreign workers applications for approved sectors while the FWCMS is an end-to-end solution developed to recruit, manage and monitor foreign workers which use an online integrated centralised system linking various stakeholders such as employers, the government and source country governments among others.
Following the announcement on Aug 9, FMM said there is no clarity on where employers should go to start their foreign worker hiring process, causing a frenzy among the industry players with no details released on procedures over the relocation of the division.
“It is understood that while the OSC was moved back to the Home Ministry, the quota approval for workers would still come from the Human Resources Ministry,” the statement said.
The FMM also reiterated its proposal to place the management of foreign workers under the Human Resources Ministry given their core role as the custodian of human resource and labour matters as well as to oversee the planning, management and development of the country’s manpower resources.
It added that the Human Resources Ministry still handles many aspects relating to recruitment and employment of foreign workers from a legislative and enforcement perspective including the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the source countries which are negotiated and signed by the ministry.
“Hence, reversal in the foreign worker management policy is complicating the entire process, making it more challenging as employers have to obtain approvals from two or more ministries/agencies for a single application which would lead to further delays in approvals and workers’ arrival.
“The amendments to the Employment Act 1955 in January 2023, in particular Section 60K, provides for employers to obtain approval from the Labour director-general before hiring any foreign workers.
“Human Resource Ministry also enforces the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities (Amendment) Act 2019 (Act 446), which is a mandatory requirement to be met for the recruitment of foreign workers along a host of other regulations and conditions,” FFM added.
The federation also urged the ministries involved to quickly convene stakeholder engagements to update the industry on the actual stand on the foreign worker hiring policy as well as the changes taking place following placing OSC back to Home Ministry.
The constant flip-flops and knee-jerk changes to foreign worker hiring policies have over the years proven to be very damaging, especially on investor confidence, said FMM.
“The changes in policies have led to a lot of frustration among employers due to confusion in the processes, resulting in employers being given the runaround from ministry to ministry, in addition to delays in the processing and approval which are very costly to employers as it impacts their ability to get workers on time and meet their order obligations,” it added.
On July 6, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the government will conduct further review concerning the two foreign worker management systems, which are said to have overlapping functions as revealed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The PAC, in its parliamentary report, found that the agencies had overlapping functions in managing foreign workers and this had caused a wastage of public funds.
