Speaking in Dewan Rakyat today, he said Malaysian employers often chose to leave the responsibility of ensuring the workers’ welfare to their agents instead of doing so themselves.
“It seems the number of foreign workers from various countries wanting to come to Malaysia has reduced. This is because Malaysian employers do not treat them well.
“We see the number of foreign workers from Nepal, Philippines and Indonesia reducing as they can now find jobs that give them better treatment elsewhere.
“Employers don’t want to be held accountable for the welfare of these foreign workers,” he said in response to a question posed by Anuar Abd Manap (BN-Sekijang).
Anuar had asked the home ministry to state the progress in rehiring foreign workers and the ratio of foreign labourers to local employees.
According to Nur Jazlan, while the ratio differs from one sector to another, the target set by the government was 20% foreign workers in the workforce.
“A problem here is employers’ tendency to depend on foreign labour even in sectors that are high-tech. They don’t want to upgrade the processes and the way they run their businesses.”
In February, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced the government’s decision to freeze the recruitment of all foreign workers, including the 1.5 million Bangladeshis offered by Dhaka.
He said the moratorium would remain in effect until Putrajaya was convinced about the actual manpower requirements in the various sectors.
However, on May 12, he announced that four sectors would be exempted from this ruling. They are the construction, manufacturing, plantation and furniture sectors.