Recruitment of foreign workers: Rehda ‘surprised’ by move of one-stop centre back to Ministry of Home Affairs

• “We strongly support the calls made by other professional bodies to maintain the foreign worker management system under the Ministry of Human Resources as it will not only minimise bureaucratic red tape but also streamline the process within one ministry.”

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 29): The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) Malaysia has stated that it “is surprised” by Putrajaya’s decision to move the one-stop centre (OSC) for the recruitment of foreign workers back to the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA).

On Dec 21, Minister of Human Resources (MoHR), V Sivakumar announced that the OSC for the recruitment of foreign workers is now under the purview of (MoHA), while the one-channel system (OCS) to recruit domestic workers remains under the control of MoHR.

“We strongly support the calls made by other professional bodies to maintain the foreign worker management system under MoHR as it will not only minimise bureaucratic red tape but also streamline the process within one ministry,” said Rehda president, Datuk NK Tong today.

Later last week, Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) criticised the government's decision to “back-pedal on the existing policies on foreign worker management matters”.

FMM said the industry is most disappointed with the constant flip-flops and knee-jerk changes to foreign worker policies, which have over the years proven to be very damaging, especially on investor confidence.

As for Rehda, it views the “sudden change a setback to the industry especially as we are currently in the recovery stage following the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“A lot of discussions took place among industry players and the Government before we finally came to the decision of appointing MoHR as the custodian of foreign workers related matters.

“However, this latest change of policy where two ministries would now be involved will definitely add to more red tapes, leading to further delays,” Tong added.

“Whilst we understand that the Government will only undertake measures to benefit the nation, the call to move the OSC back to the Home Ministry will only cause detriments, especially in the construction industry.

“At the moment, severe shortage of workers is seriously affecting developers’ output. We hope that MoHR is open to engagement with us and stakeholders of all affected industries in order to find a holistic approach to mitigate this issue,” explained Tong.

Rehda also “reiterated its call” for the government to address the shortage of workers. “More needs to be done to guarantee that construction workers will be available as soon as possible in order for developers to deliver homes to house buyers in a timely manner,” Tong said.