KUALA LUMPUR (July 21): Industry players said the labour shortage issue could still affect local builders, despite the government’s approval for Construction Labour Exchange Centre Bhd (CLAB) to manage the hiring of more than 100 foreign workers at any one time.
CLAB is an organisation under the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), tasked with bringing in and redistributing foreign workers for companies and organisations in Malaysia.
CIDB chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Ahmad 'Asri Abdul Hamid said the government’s decision makes the foreign worker recruitment process more efficient and cost-effective, while also ensuring that the labourers’ welfare is taken care of.
However, he does not think this measure would resolve the labour supply issue, pointing out that the number of source countries stipulated by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) remains unchanged at 15 nations, meaning that there would be no actual change in the total supply of foreign labour.
“It remains the same as before where there are exactly 15 source countries that were allowed by the government,” he told theedgemarkets.com when contacted.
This was announced by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin and Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan in a joint press conference on Monday (July 18), that three sectors, namely the construction, manufacturing and services industries, would be allowed to hire foreign workers from 15 source countries.
According to MOHA’s website, these countries comprise Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Philippine, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, India and Indonesia.
Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) immediate past president Tan Sri Sufri Mohd Zin lauded the government’s move, as it provides clarity to industry players on the entity responsible for resolving labour issues.
“Overall, it is a good decision by the government. It will solve the industry’s immediate need for a one-stop centre, so there is less confusion on who is responsible for resolving labour issues,” he said when contacted.
However, a CEO of a public-listed construction firm said CLAB’s involvement in bringing in over 100 foreign construction workers at any one time would mean an additional step for builders to hire foreign workers.
“Previously, CLAB only handled applications for less than 100 workers — our applications are all higher than that, so all of our processes were done at MOHR (Ministry of Human Resources). Now, we have an additional step — going through CLAB,” he said.
“When we applied through MOHR previously, we can actually fly over to the source country, say Indonesia; we can interview the workers and select them based on their skills. But if it is through CLAB, based on past practices, we will only be given an online biodata, and choose directly from there,” he said.
Nonetheless, he said involving CLAB would help ensure workers’ welfare is taken care of.
“If that is what the government is aiming to do — to assure their Indonesia and Bangladesh counterparts about workers’ welfare — then it might help.
“The construction industry requires a certain skillset, so as long as Bangladesh and Indonesia are opened up, our [labour shortage] issues will be resolved,” he added.
Last week, MOHR announced that the technical issues involving the process of hiring foreign workers from Bangladesh has been resolved and over 2,000 labourers will be available after the Bangladesh High Commission completes its verification of 15 recruitment companies.
MOHR’s statement came shortly after Indonesia reinstated a temporary freeze on its workers from entering Malaysia, as it viewed the recruitment system used by the Immigration Department as a tool that facilitates human trafficking and forced labour.
At the joint press conference on Monday, Hamzah said the Malaysian government is looking to clear the air on certain “misunderstandings” between the two countries.
Malaysian businesses, particularly those in the palm oil and manufacturing sectors, have faced several allegations of employing forced labour in their operations over the past two years, which has resulted in several of them losing contracts, being banned from exporting, or having their goods seized by importing countries.