PETALING JAYA: Refugees should be allowed to work in labour-strapped sectors, instead of importing foreign workers, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) said.

The thousands of refugees now in the country could easily be absorbed into the various industries, said its secretary-general G. Rajasegaran.

By doing so, the Government would not only be able to save millions of ringgit spent on sustaining the refugees but would also gain world recognition for being a humane country, he added.

Rajasegaran was commenting on the recent announcement that 100,000 new visas were approved for foreign workers in the last three months.

He said the Government should thoroughly study the needs of the industries before approving the permits because the information provided by some companies could be misleading.

He claimed that an MTUC survey last year found that some companies got rid of workers with high salaries and replaced them with lowly-paid staff.

Their modus operandi was to offer a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to workers earning between RM900 and RM1,500 and then employ new workers for RM500 and RM600, he added.

Another flaw, he claimed, was that the Home Ministry did not seem to have proper coordination with the Human Resources Ministry when giving approval for the recruitment of foreign workers.

He also said that the 272 registered outsourcing companies were another reason for the “excessive foreign workers in the country”, in that they often brought in more workers than were actually needed.

Latest figures issued by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein show there are 1.2 million legal foreign workers in Malaysia. There are believed to be an equal number of illegal or undocumented workers. — Bernama

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/2/13/nation/5673377&sec=nation