KUCHING: There will be no big influx of Bangladeshi workers due to the state’s stringent employment requirements to import them, said Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem.
About 1,000 workers are expected to arrive here by April as opposed to 5,000 as projected earlier.
The Serian MP said that plantation owners were not receptive to hiring Bangladeshi workers due to strict guidelines imposed under the Government to Government (G to G) mechanism and standard operating procedure drafted for their recruitment here, despite an acute shortage of workers especially fresh fruit bunch harvesters.
He added that foreign workers brought into the country under the G to G agreement can only work here for a maximum two years. He pointed out that the state was trying to bring in as few foreign workers as possible despite the plantation sector alone needing 30,000 workers at present, with priority placed on hiring local manpower in the plantation sector.
“The government will not compromise on the interest of the locals, whether in terms of priority for employment or security. We want 100 per cent workers but no takers. That is why we have to outsource,” he said.
“If possible, we do not want foreigners to work in the plantation sector. We want to help our people but because the locals do not want the job, saying that working in plantations is dirty and dangerous, what else can we do? The manufacturing industry is also in need of workers,” Riot told reporters when met at SUPP Chinese New Year open house at its headquarters here on Thursday.
In the past, the state depended heavily on Indonesian workers to work in the palm oil sector but the numbers had dropped significantly because the workers preferred to return home and work at palm oil plantations that are opening up on a large scale in their home country.
Under the G to G recruitment mechanism, among the requirements needed to be fulfilled before companies were allowed to hire Bangladeshi workers included them advertising in local newspapers and radio to inform locals of available job opportunities for employment priority.
“Any employer wishing to employ Bangladeshi workers must comply with all relevant provisions of the Labour Legislations enforced in Sarawak. The employer must provide decent accommodation within its premises to the workers, bear the costs of medical check-ups upon their arrival here and deposit a bank guarantee of RM2,500 for every worker employed.
“At the end of the employment contract, or if they commit crime, creating social illness or even carrying diseases, they will be sent back to their home country using the bond placed by their employers.”
Unless it is a government-linked company (GLC), the company’s minimum paid-up capital must be RM1 million or more apart from having provisional lease from the state government to develop land for palm oil plantation.
It must also be in possession of a licence from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board with a plantation size of 2,000 hectares (ha) or more employing a minimum of 30 per cent local workers with Bangladeshi workers making up not more than 20 per cent of the general workers in the plantation.