Funds are for common prosperity
I REFER to the letter “Asking for HRDF deductions to be stopped” ( The Star, June 19). The writer who claims to be a worker and employer voiced his unhappiness over the fact that in 2016, HRDF unilaterally decided that 30% of all employee contributions would be placed in a central fund, which resulted in a vast majority of employers having inadequate money to fund their own training programmes, and that HRDF was found to have used the money to sponsor junket tours and pay fat salaries and remunerations to their directors and management staff.
While the writer has rightly raised the pertinent points of unilateralism and abuse of funds, he seems to address the issue in a narrow sense where employers are regarded as the sole owner of the funds. The reality is workers’ contributions also play a major part in helping an organisation to attain its desired profits.
Training and development should not be seen as the sole prerogative of employers but a shared responsibility to ensure that all Malaysians have the opportunity to be trained in their chosen profession so that the nation can achieve the objective of increasing the number of skilled workers.
Having been involved in the manufacturing sector for 30 years, I have observed how the training programmes funded by HRDF have catered mostly to supervisory and middle management staff while workers at the lower levels are left out based on the reason that productivity would be affected if a machine operator is sent for training. It is these workers and those who are retrenched who require 30% of the HRDF funds.
It is laudable that Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran has decided to set up a body to investigate abuses in the management of the HRDF funds, and it is hoped that a more transparent system would be drawn up to deter- mine how these funds can be used effectively to benefit both the employers and their employees. The Human Resources Ministry also needs to control the mushrooming of training providers whose quality is quite suspect. There is a tendency among these training providers to use the funds to enrich themselves, which goes against the true objectives of the HRDF.
It is vital not to burn the entire house down just because there are white ants in a certain portion of the roof. There is no need to stop the deductions just because there are people who abuse their authority. If there is an element of corruption, the law should take its course. The HRDF must be viewed as a means to achieve shared prosperity for employers and employees to serve the common good of the nation in the long run.
RONALD BENJAMIN Ipoh