NRC (National Recovery Council) recommends that the approval process for applications for the recruitment of foreign workers be expedited by simplifying and improving the approval process and reducing red tape to meet the demanding needs of workers in the industry.
NRC chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the council was informed of the 4,561 foreign worker quota applications received, only 163 were being processed but had not been approved.
“The NRC was aware of the grievances and losses suffered by industries such as the plantation, manufacturing and services sectors due to urgent labor constraints once the economy was fully opened,” Muhyiddin said this in a press conference after chairing the NRC meeting today.
“As mentioned by the Ministry of Plantation, Industries and Commodities, no foreign workers were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic to help harvest the oil palm fruit, the country suffered losses of more than RM10 billion. Now that the price of oil palm is quite high, if it is still delayed with no foreign workers, this will cause huge losses to our country,” he added.
As a short-term measure, Muhyiddin said the NRC proposed that conditional approval be given to applications that were being processed to expedite the supply of foreign labor to the affected sectors.
“For the long term solutions, the NRC is of the view that the structural issues of labor shortages and dependence on foreign labor need to be addressed comprehensively,” he said.
