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KUALA LUMPUR (April 28): The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has called on the government to allow refugees and undocumented foreign workers to work legally in the country to ease the acute labour shortage.
In a statement, MEF said employers are facing a severe shortage of foreign workers due to the freeze of the recruitment of new foreign workers imposed during the 2020 and 2021 Covid-19 pandemic period, and closure of Malaysia’s borders .
Noting that the government lifted the freeze on recruitment of foreign workers in February this year, MEF said: “However, the application and approval processes are still not running smoothly and no new foreign workers are brought in thus far.”
MEF president Datuk Syed Hussain Syed Husman added: “MEF is very concerned that after close to three months of opening up of the applications to recruit new foreign workers, no new foreign workers are brought in yet.
“Despite all the efforts taken by employers to resolve shortage of workers, especially foreign workers, the shortage is not resolved thus far.”
Syed Hussain said MEF is appealing to the government to allow other forms of labour to cover the shortage of foreign workers until they finally arrive in Malaysia.
Citing the oil palm plantation sector which depends on available harvesters to harvest the crops at the right time, the MEF president said: “Any delay in harvesting the crop will lead to total loss.”
“The plantation industry lost more than RM30 billion due to shortage of harvesters. Billions were lost as ripe fruits were not harvested to convert to palm oil due to shortage of workers,” he added.
Syed Hussain said a similar shortage is being experienced by other sectors such as manufacturing, tourism, retail services and construction.
“MEF is proposing for special approval to be given to use the labour available within the country now. We can source for the required labour from among the refugees, undocumented foreign workers here, and prisoners on minor crimes.
“These people with the special approval of the government can be deployed immediately to fill up the acute shortage until the new foreign workers finally arrive.
It was reported that there are about 168,000 refugees holding UNHCR card and more than 60% of them are potentially employable.”
“The Malaysian business community had spent a lot of time and resources to fill up the shortages but to no avail. With the higher world demand for Malaysian products and services, every second delay is translated into loss of revenue for businesses and the government.
“Employers need new workers urgently to assist in their recovery efforts and put their businesses on the right path. We need to look for quick solutions as short gap measures until all issues on foreign labour recruitment are resolved.”
Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/mef-appeals-special-approval-employ-refugees-undocumented-foreign-workers-ease-labour