DEMAND for home helpers is high, but employment agencies are in a bind over recruitment following Putrajaya’s announcement on freezing new intake of foreign workers until the end of this year.

Agencies will not be able to replace domestic helpers whose permits are expiring as a result of the announcement by Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan earlier this week, who said the move was to boost employment among Malaysians.

Agencies interviewed by The Malaysian Insight said they are now at a loss over what to do with workers they have recruited who are waiting in their countries of origin to be brought to Malaysia.

An agency director, who asked requested anonymity, said her agency has 50 clients needing replacements for their house helpers.

“Their workers’ permits are nearing expiry and they intend to return to their countries. So we have to start bringing in new helpers as replacements.

“We understand the minister’s emphasis on giving work to locals, but locals are not keen to work as house helpers,” she said.

“We’ve had Malaysian workers before but they don’t last very long. They only last a few months.”

This director’s agency has placed advertisements to hire locals but only received a few applications.

She said the need for domestic helpers and caretakers is becoming urgent for several clients as parents prepare to return to their workplace after the movement control order (MCO) brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Parents are not keen on sending their children to daycare due to concerns about virus transmissions.

“Parents feel better having a helper at home to take care of their children.”

The agency director describes the ministry’s decision as one that has sparked off a chain reaction affecting many parties.

Some parents cannot afford to stay home or they might lose their jobs, while agencies like hers struggle to maintain workers and serve clients.

Another director of a domestic helper recruitment agency said she has 50 workers whose visas have been approved waiting in the Philippines to be brought over to Malaysia.

The director, who also requested anonymity, said Saravanan’s announcement means that she cannot proceed with bringing in the workers.

“This is very difficult for me because I only employ Muslim caretakers and right now, deposits have been paid, commitments have been made, but I can’t deliver,” she said.

Many of her clients need new caretakers or replacement workers to look after their children and aged parents, she added.

“During the MCO, many people were at home looking after their kids and old parents, now with the economy opening up and no caretakers to be found, who’s going to look after them?”

She said some clients are also elderly folk who lived alone.

“There is this 95 year-old man who lives in a big house alone with no helper, how can he go on without one?”

Four leading associations in the domestic worker sector have issued a joint statement to the government explaining the difficulty of employing Malaysians for such jobs.

They said while they support employing locals, the reality is most Malaysians are not keen on working as domestic helpers, despite the high demand for such workers.

The statement was released by Association of Employment Agencies Malaysia, Malaysian National Association of Employment Agencies, Human Resources National Organisation and Persatuan Kebangsaan Agensi Perkhidmatan Swasta Malaysia.

“Under the recovery movement control order, many people are returning to offices to work. But schools are not fully opened.

“Those going to work have to leave their children, who are in the lower classes, at home without supervision,” the statement said.

These agencies are hoping that the government will allow domestic workers, from at least the Philippines, to be allowed into the country to ease the non-availability of locals who are not willing to work in this sector. – June 28, 2020.