'No economic value': Some firms pay TVET graduates foreign worker rates

KUALA LUMPUR: Some companies want to pay technical and vocational education and training (TVET) graduates foreign-worker wages and house them in designated quarters, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said.

"We have produced 400,000 TVET graduates whom we want to take up this work."

"Unfortunately, some of these companies want to pay these TVET graduates foreign worker rates," he told the Dewan Rakyat here.

He said that even after the minimum wage was raised to RM1,700, salaries had not reached the level needed, as graduates were being paid the same rates as foreign workers.

Johari was responding to a supplementary question from Tan Hong Pin (PH-Bakri), who said many manufacturers had automated their operations but still needed unskilled labour, mostly foreign workers.

Tan said firms seeking cheaper labour were often told to relocate to Indonesia or Vietnam. He described this as a dangerous signal that could drive factories out of the country.

He asked whether the ministry would assess the level of automation in each industry and provide policy flexibility on foreign workers if companies had "maxed out" on automation.

Johari rejected the argument that Malaysians were lazy and did not want jobs.

"Every morning, 100,000 people cross to Singapore to take up jobs, and some have diplomas, degrees, even master's degrees.

"Why do they take those jobs when it is roughly the same work we ask them to do in our factories?

"It's because the jobs here have no economic value to them, the way we offer salaries," he said.

He said the country now had 2.6 million foreign workers. Under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), the number should be reduced, but this had not happened because some companies still wanted foreign workers.

"Many of these issues revolve around our policies, which are often too flexible," he said.

He said new licence applications to recruit foreign workers for ventures similar to those operated by existing companies were rejected.

"If they want foreign workers, the number of foreign workers will keep increasing.

"So how do we manage the growing number of TVET students, a field we had not focused on before, who now number more than 400,000?" he asked.

Johari said industries that approached the ministry or the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) were told they could employ foreign workers only for "3D" jobs – dirty, dangerous and difficult work.