HUMAN Resources Minister M. Saravanan should suspend himself and his officials for causing businesses unnecessary hardship, DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng said.

“He should suspend himself for two weeks for imposing a two-week suspension on the application for the recruitment of migrant workers from August 15-31,” Lim said in a statement.

He added that due to Saravanan, Malaysia had been labelled a disgrace by at least one of its neighbours.

“His failure to deliver on his promise in the memorandum of understanding signed with Indonesia to stop Malaysia’s Maid Online System (MOS) resulted in Indonesia placing a freeze on migrant workers,” the Bagan MP said.

According to Lim, there is no reason why applications should not be processed to overcome labour shortage.

“This would overcome the shortage of 1.2 million workers, affecting all industries.

Lim said if the issue was not resolved immediately it could result in tens of billions of ringgit in lost revenue, across multiple industries.

Last week, the Ministry of Human Resources said Malaysia will be temporarily suspending applications for the recruitment of foreign workers from August 15 to August 31.

“However, all applications submitted before or on 14 August will be processed and completed by the end of the month.

“This suspension will allow the review of the application procedure, following the Employment Act 1955, which takes effect on September 1 this year,” the ministry said in a statement.

Yesterday, Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) said about 1,500 Indian-Muslim restaurants are expected to close nationwide following the lack of foreign workers.

“The lack of foreign workers has caused 3,000 of 12,000 registered association members to close since the Covid-19 pandemic started more than two years ago.

“The mamak restaurant industry needs at least 30,000 more workers to fill vacancies across the country,” Presma president Jawahar Ali Taib Khan said.

Also yesterday, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers said the foreign worker application procedure should not be stopped because it would disrupt the nation’s economic recovery.

“The decision to temporarily suspend the application for the recruitment of migrant workers for two weeks will disrupt the operation of industry players.

“Employers were still in the process of replacing workers who left during the pandemic following the two-year freeze on recruitment.

“Meanwhile, others are in the process of expanding due to an increase in demand and the need to fulfil the backlog in orders,” president Soh Thian Lai said. – August 14, 2022.