FMM says ban and possible recall of Myanmar workers would disrupt industry

PETALING JAYA: The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) yesterday said the ban and possible recall of Myanmar workers would disrupt current recruitment efforts and cause a further shortage of workers, in an industry which employs 70% of those working in the country.
According to the Ministry of Human Resource website, as at June 2016, the manufacturing sector employed 100,349 Myanmar nationals.
The federation in a statement yesterday said the manufacturing sector would be affected by the ban on new workers and possible recall of existing workers by the Myanmar Government.
This is as the move by the Myanmar Government coupled with the on-going freeze on recruitment and foreign worker approvals on a case-to-case basis would cause a further shortage of workers.
FMM said the ban would disrupt current recruitment efforts of the industry as some employers might have already incurred recruitment costs including travel expenses and levy payments to bring in new workers to meet the current shortage in labour; a recall amounts to a breaking of the employment contract which employers would unlikely be compensated for the premature termination; employers have already incurred costs on recruiting the foreign workers such as medical, insurance, levy advance, etc, which they would not be able to recover; Myanmar nationals may resort to running away, which would result in employers being penalised by the Immigration Department.
In view of the issues involved FMM asks that the authorities namely the Home Affairs Ministry and Immigration, give due consideration to Malaysian employers by expeditiously giving approval to replace Myanmar workers; and in the event of runaways, no penalty be imposed.