HUMAN Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran and Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin have presented a paper to the cabinet on reviving the government’s mechanism for finding quick replacements for foreign workers with other foreign workers.

Kulasegaran said the matter was discussed in a special cabinet meeting yesterday.

“We discussed the matter of ‘penggantian’ (replacement), a mechanism that was stopped in 2017. No final decision has been made yet,” he told reporters after signing a memorandum of understanding with Dong Zong on technical and vocational training in New Era University College, Kajang, today.

Kulasegaran explained that the policy involved the automatic replacement of foreign workers whose visas have expired.

“After the mechanism was abolished in 2017, employers currently have to apply afresh for new workers with the Human Resources Ministry and Home Ministry, which takes a long time and requires many applications,” he said.

Kulasegaran said he had raised the matter to the cabinet on March 15, and an announcement on its decision would be made next week.

The Human Resources Ministry recently said there is no freeze on foreign worker recruitment, and that it was committed to ensuring that employers continue to abide by labour laws and guidelines to check the practice of forced labour. – May 23, 2019.