PETALING JAYA: Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (Samenta) strongly opposes the mandatory requirement for employers to report all job vacancies and newly created positions.
Its national president Datuk William Ng said while the Social Security Organisation (Perkeso) will impose a moratorium on the requirement for up to two years before enforcement, it was insufficient to address the group’s concerns.
“The requirement is an additional compliance burden for our SMEs who are already cracking under pressure from rising costs and manpower shortages.
He said among the reasons for an SME not to disclose vacancies were situations where the incumbent is still in service, to avoid alerting competitors to their strategies and growth plans, or vacancies that are contingent on market conditions.
“Clearly, decisions with such severe and debilitating effects on SMEs should not be made without understanding how businesses operate,” he said in a statement on Friday (Dec 5).
Ng also said that Samenta welcomed the overall package of reforms introduced under the recent amendments to the Employment Insurance System Act 2017 (EIS) and related social security legislation.
“The enhancements, including improved benefits for contributors; higher reemployment allowances; expanded training support and greater mobility assistance; represent important strides in strengthening worker protection and labour-market resilience.
Ng added that Samenta, which was formed in 1986, as the oldest and largest SME association, was not consulted on this provision, even though SMEs will shoulder the greatest compliance and operational impact.
“While we were involved in discussions on the amendments to the EIS, the mandatory job-vacancy reporting requirement came as an unwelcome surprise.
“We believe any policy with far-reaching implications on hiring must be preceded by meaningful and structured engagement with SME stakeholders,” he added.
Ng also urged the government and Perkeso to withdraw the compulsory element of the vacancy-reporting requirement.
He proposed an opt-in, incentivised system, where employers are encouraged to share vacancy information.
“Incentives could include preferential access to government-funded training, matching services or tax-related benefits,” he added.
Ng also said Samenta is ready to engage constructively with the government and Perkeso to ensure that labour-market reforms strike the right balance between protecting workers and sustaining business growth.
He stressed such engagement must begin with genuine and inclusive consultation without resorting to rubber-stamping decisions.
