Govt taking steps to address excess of foreign workers in certain sectors, says HR Minister

PETALING JAYA: The management of foreign workers in Malaysia is subject to giving priority to local workers and the demand from employers, says V. Sivakumar.

In a statement Sunday (Oct 22), the Human Resources Minister said it is also subject to needs and sectors based on criteria determined by the Government.

"Recently, the Government relaxed its conditions for hiring foreign workers, with the intention of assisting and facilitating businesses, taking into consideration the challenging economic environment and the post-Covid-19 effects.

"Businesses in critical need of workers to support their operations and recovery were made a priority.

"Although the conditions were relaxed, companies with approvals would have six months to fulfil all the regulatory requirements involved with regard to the hiring of foreign workers," Sivakumar said in the statement.

Sivakumar was responding to an Oct 19 report that Malaysia faced a huge excess of foreign workers due to systemic weaknesses.

Sivakumar said, however, the relaxation measures were temporary and had been stopped from March 18 this year.

"The government has reviewed the relaxation programme and is aware that some employers had misused the flexibility given, resulting in the approved quota exceeding the actual needs of the employers.

"This has undeniably caused many foreign workers to face unpleasant situations of not being paid, not being given jobs and not being provided with conducive accommodation according to the laws of the country," he said.

Sivakumar said the above issues were seriously being looked at by the government and several steps would be taken to address the problems.

"The government has decided that there will be no more approvals for new quotas and it will only be managing the entry of workers based on the approved quotas to ensure that the number of foreign workers in Malaysia will not exceed 2.4 million by 2025.

"The authorities will increase enforcement activities and take strict action against employers who fail to comply with labour and immigration laws along with any other fraudulent activities conducted by employers during the relaxation programme.

"Employers and private employment agencies who breach laws and misused the policies and directives by the Government with regard to foreign worker recruitment will also be blacklisted.

"Lastly, assistance will be rendered to foreign workers whose employers misused the relaxation programme through the Employer Exchange Programme, and the new employers will be screened by the Labour Department and Immigration before the workers are allowed to join them," Sivakumar said.