Malaysia Update

PETALING JAYA: The electrical and electronics sector is asking the Labour Department for workers, now that orders for its products are on the upswing again.

Labour director-general Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahim said they were receiving requests for more workers from employers in the sector since the beginning of the month.

“The majority of those retrenched at the beginning of the year came from this sector, followed by those in the textile and garment manufacturing sector.

“But now, we believe there may be new orders coming in for the electrical and electronics sector by June. This is a good indication that our exports are getting better.

“We will give bosses our assistance in looking for new workers. For a start, we have provided them with the profiles of 12,000 workers who were recently retrenched,” he said in an interview here yesterday.

Ismail said the department had 27,000 job vacancies on record while those retrenched in the country now numbered some 23,000.

“We have managed to place 7,000 retrenched workers in these jobs. I urge those who have yet to find jobs to register with us.

“Hopefully, the current swine flu outbreak in Mexico and certain places in the United States won’t affect the recovery,” he said.

Ismail said the department would also ask companies and factories to stop depending on third-party contractors to supply them with foreign workers as one way of saving job opportunities for local workers.

In recent statistics posted on the Human Resources Ministry website, 16,744 local and 7,145 foreign workers were retrenched between Oct 1, 2008, and April 27.

Of the 8,242 workers given voluntary separation schemes in the same period, 7,342 were locals.

Similarly, local workers formed the majority of those temporarily laid off or given pay cuts – 30,907 compared with 10,772 foreigners.

Ismail reminded employers that according to the law, they must retrench their foreign workers first.

“Bosses are required to inform us every time they retrench their workers. This is so we can check if they have followed the law and first retrenched their foreign workers,” he added.