PUTRAJAYA’S labour recalibration plan may not address the shortage of workers, said the Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF).

MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan highlights at least two potential problems: one, the difficulty attracting undocumented foreign workers to certain sectors and two, the reluctance of employers to participate in the programme for fear of penalties.

The plan is for undocumented migrant workers and employers.

It enables employers in plantation, agriculture, construction and manufacturing to employ legally undocumented foreign workers for the period between November 16 and June 30 next year.

The plan under the Immigration Department comes after Putrajaya’s freeze on the hiring of foreign workers following the Covid-19 pandemic in order to prioritise jobs for locals. However, it led to complaints of worker shortage by companies.

Shamsuddin said workers might be more attracted to certain sectors and leave other sectors with a labour shortage.

“The plantation sector is currently facing a critical shortage of some 62,000 employees.

“The illegal foreign workers would not be attracted to work in the plantation sector as they may choose to work in the other more attractive sectors, such as manufacturing, construction or agriculture.

“They may also choose to go back to the source countries instead of continuing to work in Malaysia,” he said, referring to a parallel programme, the repatriation recalibration plan, running for the same period and allowing illegals to return home voluntarily.

On employers’ possible reluctance to register under the labour recalibration plan, Shamsuddin said companies are worried about penalties for employing undocumented workers.

“Employers are expected to register illegal foreign workers in their employ and this may cause a lukewarm response as they will be imposed with a compound penalty for employing illegal workers.

“A better approach would be to require illegal foreign workers to register and interested employers to register and apply accordingly,” he said.

According to MEF, the current number of legal foreign workers in Malaysia is currently at about 1.7 million.

“Some of the foreign workers were already sent back to source countries due to the sluggish economic situation.

“The ratio of legal foreign workers to illegal foreign workers is in the range of 2:1.5 to 1:2.” – November 25, 2020.