THE various costs employers have to fork out to legalise their illegal foreign workers could be the single biggest factor to knock back Sarawak’s employment recalibration policy, said the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak.

MTUC Sarawak secretary Andrew Lo told The Malaysian Insight the hefty cost could be prohibitive to most employers.

In the policy, which was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah on Wednesday, employers will have to pay up to RM1,300 in compounds to settle their workers’ infringements, such as overstaying (RM500), not having travel documents (RM500) and flouting the terms of conditions of the work permit (RM300).

The employers then have to put down a deposit of RM500 per worker and pay between RM410 and RM1,010 for a levy, depending on which economic sector the workers are employed in.

The levy for those who are recruited to work in factories and the construction sector is RM1,010, plantation RM590 while its RM410 for farm hands.

Then there is a RM185-plus payment for unspecified “other charges”.

“The cost will further escalate as the state has made it mandatory for the employers to send the workers for the Covid-19 screening to prevent the import of the virus,” said Lo.

Under the stringent standard operating procedure (SOP) the state disaster management committee had drawn up, if the worker is found to be infected and needs to quarantined, the employers will also have to pay for the quarantine cost.

“It does not end there,” he said.

“Employers now have to comply with the Minimum Housing Standards Act for workers, a step meant to avoid overcrowding in the workers’ quarters to break the Covid-19 transmission.”

Lo questioned why the state government would allow the recruitment of foreign workers when so many locals were retrenched as a result of the pandemic.

He said with all the extra costs, it would be better for employers to use the money to pay higher wages to local workers.

Lo also raised the fear that foreign workers could be subjected to abuse to justify the cost of employing them.

“The only way for employers to recoup these fees is to work their foreign workers more than eight hours a day,” he said.

“The only people to benefit from this exercise are the recruitment agents who stand to rake in ‘tens of million ringgit in agent fees’.

In reopening the state to foreign workers, Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had said the state government has approved the applications of 27,000 foreign workers for the agricultural, plantations, construction, manufacturing and services sectors.

The services sector include transportation, restaurants, coffeeshops, and mining.

He said the decision to allow foreign workers back was made based on the numerous requests from industries that are on foreigners. – March 6, 2021.