Let HR ministry recruit, manage foreign workers, urges MEF

SHAH ALAM - Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) says bosses are proposing that the recruitment and management of foreign workers including foreign domestic workers to be under the human resources ministry.

President Datuk Syed Hussain Syed Husman says the ministry should continue to oversee and control the hiring under the One Channel System (OCS).

“MEF believes that the human resources ministry, being the custodian of laboor working with employers and unions should be the one stop ministry to manage the OCS.

“The ministry also regulates the way employees including foreign workers work and has enough enforcement capacity to manage this,” he said in the statement.

Businesses are still working swiftly to return to normal post Covid 19 and the recent major floods.

He said there has been shortage of workers after the freeze on recruitment of foreign workers and the inability to replace temporary working visit pass (PLKS) permits.

Citing an example, he said just after Covid, the palm oil sector face acute shortage of harvesters that continue to result in loss of revenue for planters of more than RM 1 billion per month and income to the government due to loss in palm oil yield.

The country's chronic shortage of foreign workers gradually improved once the human resource ministry was granted control over the OCS as of April 2022.

“Having too many ministries involved in management and administration of foreign workers cannot solve the delays in bringing new foreign workers urgently," he said.