Referencing the incident where “as many as 1,000 employers” were turned away from the ministry, the DAP chairman said Saravanan’s “disappointing display of ignorance” would ultimately cost Malaysian industries tens of billions of ringgit.
“The ministry can do a better job in this digital age and computer era than having employers who are already busy managing their businesses queue up fruitlessly for long hours waiting unsuccessfully to be served,” Lim said in a statement.
He pointed out that Saravanan had previously said that earlier applications to hire about 400,000 foreign workers would proceed before the end of August.
Lim said the ministry’s failure to resolve the severe worker shortage would cost the plantation sector, glove makers and auto spare parts industry RM33.5 billion in inflicted losses, not including other industries.
He said Malaysia’s electrical and electronics (E&E) sector was in urgent need of at least 30,000 workers, adding that the shortage could jeopardise E&E exports, which “generated 56% of Malaysia’s 2021 trade surplus and accounted for 6.3% of 2021’s total worldwide E&E exports.”
“How can Malaysia generate economic growth if such a simple matter of documentation and processing of foreign labour recruitment cannot be resolved?” Lim asked.
He said the government should expedite foreign worker approvals through transparent, predictable, and effective mechanisms, urging Saravanan to “help”, not “harm”, businesses by cutting red tape in the application process.
Lim also cited the Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) as saying that 1,500 Indian-Muslim restaurants were expected to close nationwide due to the lack of foreign workers and difficulty in sourcing local labour.
“Many industries suffer the same predicament as mamak restaurants. What happened yesterday is a damning indictment of Saravanan’s lack of performance and litany of broken promises”.
Yesterday, FMT reported that many employers were left disgruntled after being turned away from the human resources ministry when they were unable to be interviewed for their foreign worker quota applications.
This despite them queuing for hours, some as early as 6am. Many were forced to have their interview dates postponed because of the large number that showed up.