Image credit: New Straits Times
KUCHING (Dec 26): The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Association of Sarawak has hailed the state’s recent decision to allow resumption of hiring foreign workers from Jan 1 next year as a good policy.
Its president Dato Sri Charles Voon said employers of many various sectors would face difficulties in recruitments if the door to hiring of foreign workers was not opened.
According to him, many of the vacancies that have been filled by foreign workers are those that have been shunned by local workers.
“While we welcome the new policy from Jan 1 next year, we also hope that employers in the state will always give priorities to local workers.
“This is to ensure that we play a role to defend the rights of Malaysians and Sarawakians,” he said in a statement today.
Voon believed that opening up the door to the recruitment of foreign workers would help address the shortage of workers in certain economic sectors.
He said this would also pave way for the state’s economy to be well on its road to recovery.
He said although most of the shortage of workers was faced by employers in industries such as construction, the state also required high-skilled technicians and professionals to take care of specific maintenance job at factories.
“It is not just labourers that we need, some employers have to recruit individuals with specific skills.”
Because of this, Voon said if the state government did not allow employers to hire foreign workers, some employers might not be able to get the right person to fill the vacancies.
He added that not being able to recruit individuals with specific skills would pose another challenge to employers amid this pandemic.
Last Wednesday (Dec 23), Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) decided to allow the recruitment of foreign workers to the state, effective Jan 1, 2021.
Its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the latest decision was in view of the number of Covid-19 infections in the state involving illegal immigrants.
“We decide to allow the recruitment of foreign workers to Sarawak and hope that by doing so, the entry of illegal immigrants can be reduced and as such, the source of positive Covid-19 cases will also go down,” said the deputy chief minister.
Uggah said employers who wished to recruit foreign workers into the state must follow several standard operating procedures (SOP) that had been put in place.
“They must apply and comply with the admission procedure for foreign workers to Sarawak which will be submitted to the state Immigration Department.”
He added that employers must also provide transportation for their foreign workers who arrived at the entry point of Sarawak.
Source: https://www.theborneopost.com/2020/12/26/sme-association-hails-state-govts-decision-to-resume-hiring-of-foreign-workers/