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PUTRAJAYA: Large corporations will be allowed to bring in foreign workers, but in return, they are required to finance the repatriation of foreigners held in immigration warehouses.
Nor will the hiring of foreign workers be allowed in the metals, scrap metal and used articles subsector. These were some of the issues discussed at the first meeting of the joint committee of Ministers of Home and Human Resources on Thursday (December 3).
Interior Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said a proposal that major companies hire foreign workers with the understanding that they pay to send home those in immigration warehouses will soon be raised in Cabinet.
“The ratio will be one to one. If a company needs to hire five foreign workers, we will allow them to do so as long as they pay to deport five migrants who are in immigration warehouses.
“This is one way we can solve the problem of overcrowding in warehouses,” he said after co-chairing the meeting with Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.
Hamzah added that companies can choose to hire people in detention centers, but noted that only 15% of them are employable.
“There are undocumented immigrants in the warehouses with criminal records and we don’t think they are employable.
We are also of the opinion that those with families should be deported to their homeland.
“Employers can find suitable candidates in warehouses or apply to bring in workers from abroad as long as compliance with SOPs on Covid-19 must be followed,” he said.
Hamzah also said that the hiring of foreigners would no longer be allowed in the aforementioned subsector, adding that those currently hired will cease to be employed in the next three years.
“This means that foreigners currently hired in the subsector cannot have their work permit renewed,” he said.
There are currently 21,154 people employed in the subsector, of which 2,931 are foreigners.
The committee also agreed with the proposal of the Ministry of Human Resources to postpone the implementation of a multi-tiered tax.
This was supposed to be in effect on January 1, but will now be implemented on July 1, 2021.
Hamzah said the meeting agreed that the levy rate in the multi-tier levy system is reviewed to ensure its effective implementation.
Saravanan said the post-pandemic economic scenario had necessitated the need to review the multi-tiered levy mechanism.
“With the delay in the mechanism, we call on industries to restructure their businesses, especially in the labor aspect, where the employability of workers must be given to locals,” he said.
On the recalibration program for illegal immigrant foreign workers, Saravanan said the Labor Department had received 134 requests from employers involving the hiring of 19,734 foreign workers.
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