Study local needs before bringing in Bangladeshi workers, says MTUC

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) hit out at Putrajaya over its plan to bring in 1.5 million workers from Bangladesh over the next three years, saying that it would adversely affect Malaysian workers and the country's economy. The union's secretary-general N. Gopal Kishnam said currently, thousands of Malaysian workers were traveling to Singapore daily to earn a living. "Why? Who are the ones doing semi-skilled jobs in Singapore? "Although it is semi-skilled, they are willing to commute daily as the wages are higher and commensurate with the work they do," Gopal said in a strongly worded statement. Hence, he said, it was a better to invest in training Malaysian workers and give them reasonable wages so that they too could undertake semi-skilled jobs in the country. "Currently locals do not want these jobs as the pay is low and the working hours long," Gopal said. He added MTUC was also concerned about the high number of undocumented foreign workers currently in the country, adding that the government must find a solution to this before allowing the 1.5 million from Bangladesh into the country. "If the government is serious about achieving Vision 2020, they should limit the number of foreign workers  as stated in the 11th Malaysia Plan, which is to reduce the amount to just 15%. "But based on what is happening currently, this cannot be achieved, until now, there are close to 7 million foreign workers here but only 2.1 million are documented," he added. As such, he urged the authorities to do an in-depth study on labour needs in order for the government to reduce dependance on foreign labour. He said that of late, there were also reports of vice activity involving foreign workers. "The country cannot depend on labour from other countries. "This will only effect our local economy and the people," Gopal added. It was reported two days ago that the government's plan to bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers could soon come to pass under a newly drafted memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bangladeshi government. The report in Dhaka Tribune said the workers would enter Malaysia under the G2G (Government-to-Government) Plus scheme which allowed them employment in construction, service, manufacturing and agriculture sectors. Previously, Bangladeshi workers were only hired for plantations. – February 11, 2016.]]>