FMM In The News: BERNAMA, KUALA LUMPUR, Friday, August 12, 2022 - The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) has reiterated its call for the current application procedure for foreign workers’ approval to be maintained for a quick turnaround on the applications.

President Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai said FMM felt that the current foreign worker application procedure should not be stopped as it would disrupt the current economic recovery. 

“The procedure includes the decentralisation of the interview process via the One Stop Centre (OSC) at state labour offices to allow the industry a seamless process of foreign worker application,” he said in a statement today.

The statement was in reaction to the Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR) temporary stoppage of the foreign worker application process from Aug 15 to Aug 31, 2022 to revise the application procedure.

Soh said the decentralisation of the interview process, which was just introduced on August 1, is very facilitative to address the bottleneck in the interview process and ease the travelling and congestion at the MOHR OSC at Putrajaya. 

“The frequent suspension of the processing of foreign worker applications is very disruptive to the planning of the industries in getting their workers in during this very critical period where industries continue to face numerous challenges to their operations, including labour shortages, that are impairing their ability to operate at maximum capacity towards business recovery,” he said.

He added that the last suspension was from June 1 to June 15, 2022.