KLANG – The shortage of foreign workers in three sectors – barbershop, textiles shops and goldsmith shops – in the country is not more than 30,000 so far, says Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar.
He said the figure was following his ministry receiving complaints from these three sectors that they needed to hire foreign workers.
However, the actual number of foreign workers to be recruited would be finalised at the cabinet meeting on Friday, he said.
“We understand the urgent need of the three sectors. Following this, a detailed discussion at the cabinet level needs to be done to determine the number of workers needed and the best mechanism to solve this,” he told reporters after inspecting business premises in Little India, along Jalan Tengku Kelana here today.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that the government had approved part of the applications for the recruitment of foreign workers, involving barbershops, textile shops and goldsmith shops which were previously frozen.
However, Anwar attached a condition saying local youths need to be trained to fill up workforce vacancies in the three sectors concerned.
Elaborating further, Sivakumar said his team had given the assurance to ensure no party misuses the applications for the recruitment of foreign workers and that it would be carried out as needed.
Meanwhile, Sivakumar said the ministry through the National Wages Consultative Council (MPGN) is committed to review the minimum wage order consistently, at least once every two years in accordance with the provisions of Section 25 of the MPGN Act 2011 [Act 732].
He also said the socioeconomic indicators that are taken into account in setting the minimum wage are the consumer price index, poverty line income, median wage (employer’s ability to pay workers’ wages), labour productivity rate and unemployment rate.
“For experienced and skilled workers, their wages should be higher than the minimum wages determined by the labour market, negotiations with employers or collective agreements,” he added. – September 5, 2023