BUTTERWORTH: Foreign workers in the construction industry should be issued with special identification cards to enable the authorities to have better control over them.
The cards should be made mandatory so that the enforcement agencies would be able to differentiate between the legal and illegal workers, said Malaysian Malay Contractors Association deputy president Datuk Mohamed Fadzill Hassan.
He said the Construction Labour Exchange Centre Berhad (CLAB) should issue the cards which may be installed with either bar code strips or electronic chips containing details of the worker and his employer.
“These cards will come in handy when the police and Immigration Department officers conduct spot checks.
“Sometimes, the workers' passports and work permits are kept by their employers. If this happens, they can show the officers their CLAB cards, which indicate they have been legally employed,” he said after opening the CLAB northern region's meet-the-customers forum in Prai here yesterday.
Mohamed Fadzill said when the enforcement officers scanned the cards, they would be able to view the workers' employment details as provided by CLAB, which would regularly update its database.
He said at present, CLAB was the sole authorised agency under the Construction Industry Development Board to supply foreign workers to the construction industry.
Since it began operations in 2004, CLAB had brought in over 33,000 foreign construction labourers.
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