80% cheaper to hire foreigners

PETALING JAYA: The government’s decision to end the services of third-party agents will see savings of about 80% from the current costs of bringing in each foreign worker from their source countries, says the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).

Its president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman described the decision as timely, adding that cutting middlemen out of the foreign worker recruitment process would end modern slavery and uplift the image of Malaysian employers.

“The reduction in costs in bringing foreign workers to Malaysia will resolve one of the major indicators of forced labour facing Malaysian employers, which is debt bondage of foreign workers when they come to Malaysia,” he said in a statement.

Due to the involvement of third-party agents, workers are forced to take high-interest loans or mortgage their property to pay for the high recruitment fees, thus putting them in “debt bondage”.

Syed Hussain said that high recruitment fees charged by third-party agents had long been the major cause of increased costs for foreign workers who want to work in Malaysia.

The intake of foreign workers should be done on a government-to-government basis to ensure the interests and welfare of both employers and foreign workers were safeguarded, he said.

“MEF hopes that the new policy of ending the use of third-party agents to recruit foreign workers will be implemented as soon as possible to allow employers to recover and put their businesses back on track, and the nation to achieve the targeted GDP growth of between 4% and 5% for 2023,” he said.

He said MEF was thankful to the government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for assisting private sector employers on many fronts to play its role as the engine of growth for the nation.

Syed Hussain also suggested that employers be allowed to formally recruit refugees that hold valid UNHCR refugee cards as a way to plug the foreign worker shortage.

“These refugees, comprising the skilled and unskilled, are already in the country,” he said.

He said they could be allowed to work in sectors that were not popular with locals.

On Wednesday, Anwar said he wanted the Home Ministry to stop using agents to recruit foreign workers due to the high costs involved.He cited the example of foreign workers from Nepal who cost employers about RM3,700 per worker, compared to those from Bangladesh and Indonesia – where third-party agents are involved – costing between RM20,000 and RM25,000 each.

Yesterday, Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar said efforts were being made to ensure no third parties were profiting from the hiring of foreign workers.

He said the Federal Government was looking at the best mechanism for employers to hire foreign workers without using an agency.

“Just a few weeks ago, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail went to Nepal, Indonesia and Bangladesh to discuss this matter.

“We are fully aware of the situation. Rest assured that the government is working hard to resolve the matter,” he told reporters after attending a Malaysian Railway Academy (MyRA) convocation in Batu Gajah, Perak.

The National Association of Private Employment Agencies Malaysia (Papsma) had earlier claimed in a Jan 26 statement that some of these agencies had “monopolised” the recruitment process with the help of syndicates from the source countries.