KUALA LUMPUR: The government’s aim to cap the percentage of foreign workers in the local job market at 15 per cent by 2020 should be reconsidered.
Players in various economic sectors depending largely on foreign labour said the 1.7 million foreign workers, who are legally employed in the country already made up about 12 per cent of the total job market.
In making their case, they said it had always been the “extra” help that they had been getting from the estimated 3.2 million illegal workers that allowed them to keep their operations afloat.
Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said before the government decides to limit the percentage of foreign labour in the country, it must first study and understand the needs of business sectors.
The 15 per cent target was underlined in the 11th Malaysia Plan. At that percentage, the number of foreign workers in the country should be below 2.3 million.
Asked how the economic sectors would fare if the number of foreign labourers was drastically slashed, Shamsuddin said the move would adversely impact the country’s output and revenue, and asked that the government be practical in its decisions.
“If we look at the plantation industry, for instance, do you think they can mechanise? It has reached the limit (for automation).
“I fear a repeat of the 2016 problem, when crops were not harvested and the sector lost more than RM1 billion after the government froze the intake of foreign workers.”
Shamsuddin had a tip for Immigration — Look harder in the construction industry.
“Sources say there could be up to a million illegal workers in this sector alone.
“This could be due to the system in place, where the main contractors employed sub-contractors for a job, making it difficult to monitor the chain of employment,” he said, adding that the Industrialised Building System, or IBS, could help reduce the sectors’ dependence on foreign workers.