LETTERS: The proposal by Plantations and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani to penalise companies for bringing in foreign workers and then not employing them after a month should be considered and implemented.
This should deter companies from bringing in foreign workers unless they have a real need for them. However, the response from some of the stakeholders is disappointing.
The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) says a probe should be conducted before imposing fines and that it would be unfair to blame employers without conducting the probe.
The FMM said manufacturers were subjected to strict requirements from the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry where employers must justify their foreign worker requirement.
While this is true, it does not absolve manufacturers from unemployed foreign workers who are no longer needed by the companies concerned.
In such a situation, employers should transfer these foreign workers to another company if possible, or cover the cost of repatriating them.
When applying to hire foreign workers, the application requires one employer to be named as the applicant, and this person must be fully responsible to carry out the process.
The allegation by the FMM that there are weaknesses in the process of foreign worker recruitment does not absolve employers from the issue of bringing in foreign workers who are not given employment.
The message should be clear, that is, do not bring in foreign workers if you don't need them.
The Malaysian Employers Federation is also against imposing fines on employers.
The responsibility should be on these employers to send the workers back home if the redeployment is not possible.
In the meantime, the affected employers should be required to pay a deposit instead of a fine and the deposit returned upon completion of the redeployment or repatriation.
Malaysia has been employing foreign workers for at least three to four decades. We continue to have issues on this matter, blaming the process and corruption.
So hefty fines should deter companies from applying to recruit foreign workers or even bringing them into the country unless they have a real need for them.
C.P. LEE
Penang
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times