Ministry puts off induction plan for maids and foreign workers

Sunday May 24, 2009

By V.P. SUJATA and LOONG MENG YEE

The Star Online

PETALING JAYA: Employers can heave a sigh of relief. The mandatory induction course for maids and foreign workers to qualify for visas to come here has been put off indefinitely.

The introduction of the course would have raised the fee the employers will have to pay and caused a "bottleneck" in the inflow of foreign workers, especially domestic maids.

The course was to have been made mandatory from May 1 for workers arriving from 10 source countries. Among the countries are Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said the launch had been temporarily shelved as the mechanism to implement it was not in place.

"This includes the training module involved,'' he told The Star.

He said the Government had proposed the induction course for foreign workers to enable them to learn about Malaysia's laws and culture.

"This way, they will also know how to behave accordingly," he said, adding that the duration of the courses ranged from a day to 60 hours.

Upon completion of the course, the workers would get a certificate of eligibility to apply for a visa to work in the country.

The Malaysian Association of Foreign Maids Agencies (Papa) welcomed the postponement of the move as it would have meant an additional RM120 fee for employers .

Papa had earlier objected to such a course, saying that it only created red tape in the supply of domestic maids and that foreign agents were not ready to comply with new requirement.

It is learnt Malaysia had notified source countries to get the modules, trainers and institutes ready to implement the induction course in a few months' time.

The courses are usually conducted by officials of the source country trained by Human Resources Ministry officers.

Dr Subramaniam said induction courses had been conducted in some source countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam although it was not a requirement for the visa.

"The governments of these source countries want their citizens to learn about Malaysia and its people before they come here to work," he said.

Employers have to pay as much as RM7,000 upfront now to hire a domestic maid from Indonesia, up from about RM3,500 several years ago.

Papa secretary Foo Yong Hooi said the induction course was not necessary for domestic maids.

"The maids, especially those from Indonesia, are already attending a number of courses before arriving here. They are already taught the basics about Malaysia,'' he added.