EMPLOYERS are facing a severe lack of foreign labour. The inability to meet global demand for electrical and electronic goods and palm oil is affecting the GDP. The construction industry is also feeling the lack, as is the food and hospitality sector.

Why didn’t the Human Resources Ministry anticipate the shortage given all the information it had access to? Couldn’t the ministry have tried to at least mitigate the problem?

It is troubling to hear that in some factories, the management staff is working on the production floor to help ensure orders are delivered on time. In some hotels,  human resources personnel have been doing the job of security guards.

It is counterproductive when skills and knowledge are not utilised 

Have we manufactured the reality of underemployment in the country?

We also have a shortage of skilled local workers because our graduates are not equipped with the skills required by industry.

The demand for foreign workforce has caused many employers and its agents to overlook fundamental human rights. Foreign workers suffer debt bondage and experience near slavery when their passports are held and their freedom of movement is restricted by their bosses.

It is clear we have failed to develop a human capital development eco-system with an enlightened recruitment strategy, technological growth and respect for human rights.

It is through respect for human rights that we will attract domestic and foreign workers.

It is time for the government and the opposition, who are caught in finger-pointing over the shortage of foreign workers, to start talking with the stakeholders about how to build an enlightened holistic ecosystem for the development of human capital and right.

The Association for Welfare Community and Dialogue urges the Human rRsources Ministry to engage with employers, unions, universities and think tanks towards this end. – September 12, 2022.

* Ronald Benjamin is Association for Welfare Community and Dialogue secretary.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.