Monitor illegal recruitment agencies, Govt urged

PETALING JAYA: A human resources body has welcomed the Private Employment Agencies (Amendment) Act 2017, which aims to regulate private employment agencies.

However, the National Association of Human Resources Malaysia (Pusma) reminded the Government to ensure strict enforcement against illegal recruitment agencies.

Pusma president Zarina Ismail said the body fully supported the Act, which will be enforced in August, but also wanted enforcement against illegal recruitment agencies to be stepped up.

The Act is aimed at regulating the 1,202 private employment agencies, protecting Malaysian workers and further empowering the Government to regulate recruitment activities by private employment agencies.

“Pusma also hopes the Government can abolish the direct hiring of domestic workers by employers, as this practice contradicts the regulations of the Philippine and Indonesian embassies.

“There is a high risk if employers hire domestic workers directly from the source countries,” Zarina said in a statement yesterday.

She said direct hiring could lead to more human trafficking and abuse of workers.

“As of June this year, Malaysia is in the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Tier 2 Watch List, whereas our source countries Philippines and Indonesia are in Tier 1 and Tier 2 respectively,” she said.

Zarina also said Pusma received many complaints of employers repatriating domestic workers without informing their recruitment agencies after failing to pay monthly salaries owing to the workers.

“As such, Pusma would like the Government to collect a salary guarantee bond from the employers as one of the conditions in the employment contract, and employers shall not be allowed to submit a check-out memo (application) at the Immigration Department.

“The bank guarantee bond shall be refunded to the employer once the worker resigns or is repatriated,” she added.