The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) is concerned that no
decision has been made on whether legal action would be taken against
employers who fail to carry out the exercise.
Based on feedback
from members, the FMM understands that employers in the manufacturing
sector are cooperating with the government to register their foreign
workers under the biometric system.
However, there have been resource constraints, namely an
insufficient number of biometric machines and manpower in state
Immigration offices, particularly in Selangor, Penang and Johor, which
are among states with a high number of foreign workers.
The mobile registration facility for employers with 500 and more
workers has, however, been more effective than registration at
Immigration counters.
One state Immigration office completed
the biometric registration for 1,400 workers at a company in Johor by
working on a Saturday from 7.30am to 8.30pm.
In some states, Immigration offices have facilitated
registration by allowing several companies to group together to make up
the threshold for mobile registration.
Otherwise, employers
below the threshold level would have to bring their workers in batches
each day for registration at Immigration counters.
If the
registration of the batch is not completed, the workers would have to
return the following day as part of the next batch, disrupting
production.
This current exercise has failed in its objective to deter legal
workers from running away and registering under the 6P amnesty
programme, commencing this month.
A company in Selangor lost 30
foreign workers within a day. Another in Johor had lost 113 of its
1,500 foreign workers by July 18.
In addition, some state
Immigration offices were not aware that during the exercise to register
legal foreign workers, the penalty would be waived for employers who
reported on runaway foreign workers.
Employers are frustrated that they are not able to stop their workers from absconding.
FMM is, therefore, calling on the government to issue a strong
statement to warn legal workers against running away. Such workers
should not be registered during the amnesty programme.