Hamzah: Labour recalibration plan extended to four sub-sectors in service industry

PUTRAJAYA: The labour recalibration plan has been extended to employers in four sub-sectors in the service industry, says Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (pic).

The Home Minister said the four sub-sectors are wholesale and retail, restaurants, cargo, and cleaning services.

Hamzah said the foreign workers management committee, which he jointly chairs with Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan, had reviewed several papers including the consideration to allow these sub-sectors to participate in the plan.

“We have agreed to allow employers to participate and they have until the end of June to apply to legalise their foreign workers.

“We hope that employers will make full use of the next two months to legalise their workers, ” he said after the meeting on Thursday (April 22).

The meeting also agreed to expand conditions for the programme, including allowing those who registered for the rehiring and 6P programmes but did not receive their work permits; those who had fled from their employers, but the matter was unreported; and undocumented migrants who have original and valid travel documents.

Hamzah also said the meeting has agreed to allow foreign workers in the plantation industry whose work permit is about to expire to have the validity of their permits extended for another year.

He said, for example, if the work permit expires in May, it will be valid until May next year and permits which expire in December will have its validity extended till December 2022.

However, the extension is only given to those whose work permit is expiring on their 13th year working in Malaysia.

In November last year, the government announced the labour recalibration plan where employers in the construction, manufacturing, plantation and agriculture sectors were allowed to legally employ undocumented foreign workers.

The government also rolled out the repatriation recalibration plan where undocumented migrants can volunteer to return to their homelands.

The two plans will be implemented for six months until June 30.

The labour and repatriation recalibration plans are for employers and undocumented migrants in Peninsular Malaysia.