Employers in Putrajaya have to pay more to hire additional foreign workers

Putrajaya announced on Wednesday (24 October 2018) that it will be terminating the services of 100 outsourcing companies handling foreign workers.  The hiring of foreign workers will soon be handled by an agency under the human resources ministry, said home minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as reported by Free Malaysia Today and shared on the Minister's Facebook page. 

"The agency will ensure that the hiring of foreign labour will be done in a more systematic manner and according to the existing rules and regulations," he added. The decision to restructure the hiring of foreign labour was part of the ministry's efforts to combat human trafficking and to ensure foreign workers were treated fairly by their employers.

Furthermore, human resources minister M Kulasegaran also announced that the city will be introducing a multi-tier levy system for foreign workers, in a move to control the influx of migrants into the country.

The system, which expected to be implemented next year, is similar to that of Singapore's where the principle of “the more you hire, the more you pay” stands.

A special visitor pass will be issued to foreign workers before they are given the official visit pass for temporary employment (PLKS), said Muhyiddin. Due to the lengthy medical checks that foreign workers undergo under Fomena, a concession company appointed by the Malaysian government to conduct medical screening checks on foreign workers, the special pass becomes a necessity.

“Sometimes, the duration is too long and these workers may have been placed with the employers but have yet to receive their PLKS,” he said. The special pass will expire after 30 days but could be extended for another 30 days if more time is needed by the foreign workers to sort their official documentation process, Muhyiddin added.

“If an employer has a higher number of foreign workers, the tariff imposed will therefore be significantly more and differ according to the country’s need,” Kulasegaran said in Parliament on the same day.  Putrajaya had also considered increasing the bond amount for each foreign worker to deter them from leaving their jobs, he added.

A bond ranging between RM300 and RM1,000 will be introduced on all foreign workers to prevent them from “going rogue”, according to Malay Mail. In a report by Free Malaysia Today, the bond amount was stated to be between RM300 to RM1,500.

Human Resources has reached out to the ministry for clarification on the exact bond, but has yet to receive a response.

Should the worker run away, the bond will be forfeited. "It is the employer’s responsibility to prevent such incidents and hope the authorities would take further action,” he said.

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Facebook video / Muhyiddin Yassin

Photo / 123RF