The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers has echoed the call by M. Kula Segaran, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for the management of foreign workers to be placed solely under the Ministry of Human Resources.
Currently, both the Ministry of Home Affairs and MOHR are involved in management foreign workers in the country.
FMM said it has since 2018 been calling for the more effective foreign worker management through a single Ministry and single end-to-end online system to ensure a holistic, fair and transparent administration of foreign workers in the country. More importantly, it said the industry should not be burdened with flip-flops in Government decisions when it comes to foreign worker management that has plagued the country over the years which has been most frustrating for employers as it results in a lot of confusion in the processes, employers being given a run-around from Ministry to Ministry in addition to delays in the processing and approval which is very costly to employers as it impacts their ability to get workers on a fair, transparent and timely basis as well as meet their order obligations which puts pressure on their role as global supply chain players and regional manufacturing hubs for many multinational companies.
Having a single agency to solely handle the entire management of foreign workers would ensure that a coherent set of policies could be implemented within a strategic framework for the management of foreign workers which is critical in supporting the economic growth targets of the country which is underpinned in part by the labour requirements of industries including foreign workers. In particular, there is strong justification for MOHR to undertake this role as the sole agency to handle the management of foreign workers.
FMM said there have been many and frequent flip-flops and knee-jerk changes to foreign worker policies leading to hasty and ad hoc implementations which have proven to be very damaging especially on investor confidence as the changes in policies led to a lot of frustration amongst employers due to confusion in the processes, resulting in employers being given a run-around and facing delays in the approval process.
- Most recently, the foreign worker management was handed over to the MOHR in February 2022 following the lift of the freeze on recruitment of foreign workers for almost two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Inadequate resources to handle the mammoth task of the whole foreign worker management and application process led to hiccups at the onset of the handover. Through several engagements and inputs from industry, the MOHR managed to address the initial issues including the hiccups with the system, decentralisation of interviews through the state Labour Departments and the official establishment of the One Stop Centre, Migrant Management Division, MOHR in September 2022.
- However, the unilateral decision in December 2022 to revert the foreign worker management to the Ministry of Home Affairs had once again caused much disruptions, wastage of resources, overlaps of functions, etc along the whole processing system by having two Ministries, multiple agencies and multiple systems involved.
In this regard, MOHR should be given to autonomy for the management of foreign workers in the country to maintain consistency, credibility, clarity and transparency in the foreign worker management policy in the country.
