Six Sabah trade associations appeal for foreign workers
KOTA KINABALU: Six trade associations are appealing to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor to help resolve the shortage of foreign workers faced by the industries in Sabah.
They are Sabah Timber Industries Association (STIA), Timber Association of Sabah, Sabah Furniture Association, SME Association of Sabah, Sabah Employers Association (SEA) and The East Malaysia Planters’ Association.
Their appeal along with several recommended measures were made via a memorandum to the Chief Minister submitted by SEA secretarygeneral and STIA committee member Fong Ming San, through Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam during their courtesy call to the Industrial Development Ministry (MID) at Wisma Kewangan here last Thursday.
In a press release issued by SEA, Fong said Sabah industries, which were dependent on foreign labour, had been hit by shortage of foreign workers in the past few years, with the situation turning dire since March 2020 after the country closed its borders as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“Foreign workers with expired permits returned to their home country and were subsequently unable to return to Malaysia. At the same time, the government froze intake of new foreign workers. Several lockdowns were imposed by the state, shutting down economic activities during the first Movement Control Order (MCO 1.0) and allowing operations with limited capacity during the subsequent lockdowns.
“With the eventual opening of economic activities, the need to address foreign workers shortage is of utmost priority in industries much-maligned with 3D work (difficult, dirty and demanding) which the locals shun,” he said.
Fong said the Sabah industries appealed to the state government and recommended several measures to urgently address their predicament and other issues pertaining to foreign workers, namely opening of borders to allow industries to recruit workers from Philippines and Indonesia; implementing another round of amnesty/regularisation programme for the estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants in the state; allowing application of quota to be carried out immediately; allow automatic renewal of unutilised quota approved prepandemic; and speedier processing of application for quota.
The other measures are granting work permit for holders of IMM13 and Red or Green Identity Cards to Philippine and Indonesian immigrants currently in the state; continuing the 2019 Recalibration Programme stalled by the pandemic and allowing the 80,000 qualified ‘pending’ cases to be ready for legal employment; allowing application for foreign workers quota to be carried out immediately, including automatic renewal of unutilised quota approved pre pandemic; ensuring speedier processing of application for foreign workers quota; issuing latest guideline for application of foreign workers employment; reducing the foreign workers levy of RM6,000 (manufacturing, construction and services sectors) for those having worked 11 years and above; and renewing work pass of properly documented workers who were not able to renew due to Covid-19 movement controls.
Also present were the MID deputy permanent secretary Benedick Bisoni; Federation of Sabah Industries president Richard Lim; and Federation of Malaysian Manufacturer Sabah chairman James Ha.