KUCHING, Aug 13: The Sarawak government must assist labour-intensive industries which are facing worker shortage by formulate a mechanism to hire selected workers who are in detention centres due to expired work permits, among other measures.
This is to help labour-intensive industries such as oil palm plantations, manufacturing, and construction which are facing shortage of workers, including foreigners.
In stating this, Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said in-depth discussions and research are needed to come out with a set of feasible comprehensive solutions, while curbing the pandemic at the same time.
He said the government must assist employers in legally hiring foreign workers in a safe and well-regulated manner to solve the issue of manpower shortage.
“It is understood that nearly all economic sectors in Bintulu face a lack of labour to keep their operations going. Though plantations have bountiful harvests, it is of no use if there is a shortage of hands to harvest them.
“Manufacturing factories or construction industry also face issues with completing projects on schedule and being hit by late delivery penalties. These different factors all bring skyrocketing losses to businesses of various sizes.
“Eventually their losses will also cause the State government to suffer revenue loss,” he said in a statement today.
Tiong further asserted that without official support and channels, employers may be tempted to obtain foreign labour through “irregular” means, using middlemen and other business entities that charge high fees but without security and liability.
“This means the influx of these unverified and untested workers who would then hinder the Health Department’s efforts to curb transmissions of Covid-19. Contact tracing would be compromised and this would endanger the entire community,” said Tiong who is also Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China.
Tiong therefore suggested the Sarawak government to hold talks with employers to formulate a mechanism to hire selected workers who are in detention centres due to expired work permits.
In addition to being more cost-effective, this mechanism means that there is no need for employers to introduce new batches of foreign workers, and the workers who are already detained here can be returned to the field much more quickly.
“If the existing number of foreign workers in a detention centre is too few to meet the needs of the industry, the State government may consider importing foreign labour for qualified enterprises.
“At the borders, the government must identify suitable hotels or temporary quarantine centres exclusively to house incoming foreign workers to ease the management and future tracking of these individuals,” he said.
He also stressed that the entire process must adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOP) to prevent Covid-19, standardising the quarantine period to 21 days or longer, with frequent tests. — DayakDaily
