Govt ends MyEG’s rehiring programme

PETALING JAYA: My E.G. Services Bhd (MyEG) lauded the final deadline announcement for the Foreign Workers Rehiring Programme (FWR) by the Home Ministry, saying that it will mean employers and foreign workers dragging their feet to pay government levies, will now do so.
MyEG, which is one of three third party vendors providing the FWR, saw its share price fall 3.37% or 3 sen on Friday after the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the programme end on June 30.
The company was mandated along with Iman Resources Sdn Bhd and Bukti Megah Sdn Bhd to oversee the programme.
While Iman was in charge of Indonesian nationals, Bukti Megah was mandated for undocumented workers from Myanmar. All other nationalities with exception for Myanmar fell under the purview of MyEG.
MyEG special project department director Datuk Nor Adnan Zainal Abidin told SunBiz MyEG stopped accepting registrations for the programme at the end of December last year, in accordance with the directive of the Immigration Department.
“From Jan 2018 to June 2018 we have been working with employers and PATI (undocumented foreign workers) who registered, to compile all the documents required to complete the registration process,” he said in explaining the status of the programme as of this year.
(The) announcement basically means that employers and foreign workers need to complete the process by end of June 2018. We applaud this final deadline as many employers and foreign workers have been dragging their feet in order to delay payment of the government levies,” he added.
The programme to legalise undocumented foreign workers was initially scheduled to go on from Feb 15, 2016 to Aug 15, 2016. It was later extended to Dec 31, 2017.
Between Feb 15, 2016 and May 28, 2018 a total of 744,942 undocumented foreign workers and 83,919 employers had been registered for the programme.
Following the cessation of the programme, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin said all services related to the employment of foreign workers will be conducted by the Immigration Department and no extension will be given to the three vendors.
However, the home minister said the voluntary amnesty repatriation programme known as the 3+1 programme will continue until Aug 30 to facilitate the repatriation of undocumented foreign workers to their country of origin.
After June 30, stern action will be taken by the Immigration Department on employers who did not legalise their undocumented foreign workers or repatriate them via the 3+1 programme.