Commenting on a Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF) estimate that only about 2% of the workers had registered for the programme, North-South Initiative said the problem was that foreigners were expected to present themselves at the Immigration Department for registration after finding prospective employment.
Its executive director, Adrian Pereira, said this meant they would face the prospect of arrest and detention for being undocumented or overstaying in the country.
“The government has removed middlemen in the process by asking workers to come forward directly to them. Knowing the existence of bad hats and corrupt individuals, they are not sufficiently convinced to come forward to register.
“At least, when agents were allowed to register on behalf of others, the risk was lower,” he said.
Thirty thousand foreign workers have registered for the department’s “recalibration programme” since it was launched last Nov 16 and MEF has said the figure represented only a little more than 2% of the estimated number of migrant workers.
Pereira said most foreign workers were aware they would have to face poor working conditions, be forced to live in horrible accommodation and receive low pay after being legalised.
“We have created an artificial labour environment and we have ourselves to blame,” he said.
Former human resources minister M Kula Segaran said bureaucratic procedures were to blame for the reluctance of employers or workers to sign up for the programme.
He said the online system was difficult to use and most applicants were being asked to go to Putrajaya to complete their registration.
He suggested that the process be decentralised to the district and state labour offices.
Kula also said all matters relating to foreign employment ought to be handled by the human resources ministry alone. Currently, some functions are handled by the home affairs ministry.
“Among 64 countries with a similar labour system, Malaysia is the only country to have foreign employment matters overseen by the home ministry instead of human resource authorities.
“The home ministry should focus on security. Workers’ matters ought to be in human resources. When we can’t even settle this, how can we move forward?” he said.
Jimmy Ong, who chairs the Penang branch of Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, said many illegal foreign workers could not be legalised because they had failed health tests.
He also said employers were reluctant to hire foreign workers who had been legalised for fear that they would then “run away”.
But he said there would always be a demand for foreign workers regardless of the policies put in place.
He said that when the government froze foreign worker intake in March 2020, industries were still able to cope since production took a cut because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As the economy starts to pick up again, the demand for workers will increase. There aren’t enough local workers to accommodate the demand for foreign workers.
“Foreign workers are able to provide stable productivity and efficiency within the contracted working period, whereas local workers have the tendency to move about when demand is higher than supply.”
According to Socso’s Employment Insurance System Interim Report 2020, there are 1.38 million foreign workers as of July 2020.
MEF has said the government needed to focus on ensuring efficient regulation of foreign workers instead of imposing restrictions that would be difficult to enforce.