SHAH ALAM: The amendments to the Employees Provident Fund Act (EPF Act) to make foreign worker contributions compulsory should be tabled before the meeting of the Dewan Rakyat ends, with the pension fund expecting some two million foreign workers to be covered under EPF.
“Based on the early estimates we are working on, there are roughly two to two and a half million foreign workers that will need to come under the EPF platform,” said EPF CEO Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn after the pension fund’s 2024 Financial Performance Briefing yesterday.
“The good news is with the tools and technology that we have today, a large part of it can be automated and digitalised.
“We are working quite hard on the plans and execution in anticipation of the launch,” he added.
Zulqarnain said under the scheme for foreign workers, both the employee and employers will contribute 2% each.
He said the EPF Act will have to be amended to make the contribution of foreign workers mandatory as contributions by migrant workers are voluntary currently.
He said the move was made to “equalise” labour terms between Malaysians and migrant workers, adding that this was at the exhortation of the International Labour Organisation.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said on Feb 3 that the EPF contribution for foreign workers will be capped at 2%, as opposed to the initial Cabinet proposal of 12%.
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