Speed up domestic helper hiring process, govt urged

PETALING JAYA: The government has been urged to reduce the processing time for hiring Indonesian domestic workers to save expenses all round.

National Association of Human Resources Malaysia (Pusma) president Zarina Ismail said accelerating the procedure would help address the shortage in the sector while helping recruitment agencies and employers cut costs.

"The high demand for domestic workers remains a concern and the lengthy process is costly.

"Sometimes it could take up to two months, in some cases even longer. When this happens it also leads to an increase of costs," she told The Star on Tuesday (Dec 13).

She hoped the Human Resources Ministry and Home Ministry could look into the matter and find a solution.

"The delay in processing could also lead to employers withdrawing their applications and recruitment agencies then having to return the deposits.

"However, the money taken as deposit would have been used to pay recruitment agencies in the source country to process the prospective workers," Zarina said.

Based on her observations, there was also a backlog of applications in Immigration offices.

She said the matter could be expedited with full implementation of the proposed One Channel System (OCS) that had been delayed since the bilateral agreement for maid recruitment was signed in April.

"We haven’t tried the system yet but we hope that it could make the recruitment processes easier and faster," Zarina said.

Both Indonesian and Malaysian governments had agreed to implement the system in order to recruit Indonesian domestic workers.

In October, it was reported that the system – which would also protect the welfare of Indonesian workers in Malaysia – was expected to be fully implemented in November.

The Indonesian Embassy, when contacted, said the system was not fully operational yet, citing more time needed on the Malaysian side.

It added that around 1,600 employment contracts have been processed using the embassy’s system to date.