MTUC WELCOMES MOVE TO FREEZE FOREIGN WORKERS

By Sajad Hussein

KUALA LUMPUR, JAN 22 (Bernama)-- The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC)
Thursday welcomed the government's decision to freeze the recruitment of foreign
workers in the manufacturing and services sectors.

Its Secretary-General, G. Rajasegaran said the move was appropriate as both
these sectors employed around one million foreigners.

As at the end of December last year, there were some 2.1 million foreigners
working in the country which represented about 20 per cent of the total
workforce in Malaysia.

Rajasegaran told Bernama that the government should also immediately cancel
the approved permits of foreigners who had yet to arrive in Malaysia.

"Since these foreigners were still in their country of origin, it would be
better to inform them of the cancellation so that they do not come here and find
themselves jobless and adding to our woes." he said

So far, about 35,000 Malaysians including 2,900 foreigners have lost their
jobs.

According to Human Resource Minister Dr S. Subramaniam some 45,000
workers in the manufacturing sector could temporarily be out of job soon with
most factories in the country stopping operations for the Chinese New Year
celebration.

Meanwhile, on the statement by Home Affairs Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, that
it was time to send back these foreigners, Rajasegaran said this was easier said
than done because it was not that simple.

He pointed out that these workers were here on contract and so long as they
adhered to their terms and conditions they could not be dismissed from their
jobs.

A foreign worker recruiting agency claimed that it would be very costly for
Malaysia to send these workers back as compensation would have to paid to those
workers whose contracts were still valid and who wished to work here.

The Agency's Manager who wished to be known as Nathan said his agency
recruited some 50 to 100 workers monthly mostly from India.

"Although we have about 1,000 approved permits, we do not want to utlisie
the quota in full because of the present economic condition."

According to him a foreign worker had to pay the agency around RM8,000
(US$2,216) to obtain a job in Malaysia.

This amount included air ticket, government levy and agency fees.

A Labour activist who deals with the welfare of foreign workers, Albert
Gomez, alleged that some of the local recruiting agencies in Malaysia were
responsible for flooding the country with foreign workers who could not find
employment.

He urged the government to withdraw the licence of errant agencies.
-- BERNAMA