FMM urges govt to keep current foreign worker application procedures

KUCHING: The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) is of the view that the current foreign worker application procedures be maintained so as not to disrupt the country’s economic recovery.

FMM president Tan Sri Dato Soh Thian Lai pointed to procedures in foreign worker application such as the decentralisation of the interview process via the One Stop Centre (OSC) at state labour offices.

“On Aug 5, the Ministry of Human Resources announced that the cessation of the application process for foreign workers from Aug 15 to 31 is to enable the revision to the application procedure for foreign workers following the amendments to the Employment Act 1955 (Amendment 2022).

“The amendments will come into force on Sept 1 this year and that new procedure for the application of foreign worker starting next month will be notified in the near future.

“This announcement on the impending changes to the procedure has created much confusion as well as anxiety amongst the industry as many employers are still in the process of replacing their workers who have left during the pandemic period following the freeze in recruitment for a period of two years while others are in the process of expansion due to increase in demand and the need to fulfill backlog in orders,” he said in a statement.

The statement was issued in response to the temporary stoppage of the foreign worker application process from Aug 15 to 31 announced by the ministry early this month.

Soh said the decentralisation of the interview process via the OSC at the state labour offices (introduced on Aug 1) helped to address the bottleneck in the interview process and ease the travelling and congestion at the ministry’s OSC at Putrajaya.

He pointed out that frequent suspension of the process of foreign worker applications is very disruptive to the planning of the industries in getting their workers during this critical period when industries continue to face numerous challenges to their operations.

These challenges, he said, included labour shortages that are impairing the ability of industries to operate at maximum capacity towards business recovery.

These industries require a very efficient processing system for a quick turnaround on the applications, he added.

“The labour shortages faced now are extremely serious and impacting the pace of business recovery and ability of businesses to fulfill orders with fear of losing orders and/or customers or face stiff penalties for delays,” he observed and urged the ministry to maintain the current application procedures.