Guidelines to follow when hiring employees in Malaysia

The Malaysian Ministry of Human Resources has issued guidelines on the process of hiring foreign workers. It has been stated that organizations that will hire foreign workers must comply with these guidelines. Earlier, the country's government-approved authority had published a list of 25 recruiting agencies in Bangladesh for hiring foreign workers and more than 40 medical centers for health examinations in Bangladesh.

But after the names of these agencies were published, there was a strong reaction among the agencies related to manpower export. In addition, various political parties reacted by calling it a 'syndicate'. Mohammad Fakhrul Islam, former joint secretary general of the organization of manpower exporters, says that except for 2-3 of the agencies whose names have been listed, all the rest are basically dummy agencies, behind which influential people are active.

In such a context, the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare of Bangladesh has written a letter to the Malaysian government seeking information on the matter. Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury said that the governments of the two countries are working on the labor market and whatever happens here will be done with transparency. Hopefully, we will get an official announcement from the government of that country about opening the labor market soon. There will be no secrecy or syndicate, everyone will get a chance to work by following the rules.

Earlier, after a meeting in Malaysia in late July, Prime Minister's Advisor Mahdi Amin said, 'Bangladeshi workers will start going to Malaysia from the last week of August.' Later, earlier this month, Prime Minister's Information Advisor Dr. Zahed Ur Rahman said the same thing in a press briefing at the Secretariat.

But the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare or the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur have not yet been able to find out exactly when Malaysia will announce the opening of the labor market.

What Malaysia said about the recruitment process:

A memorandum of understanding was signed with Bangladesh in 2021 on the recruitment of Malaysian workers, which will expire next December. However, recruitment of workers from Bangladesh stopped in June 2024 due to allegations of corruption, irregularities and syndicate activities.

A ministry official in Dhaka said that Bangladesh will have to send workers following the MoU as it is in effect. However, the government will take steps regarding a new MoU or agreement after December.

Manpower exporters say that an influential group, including those who previously syndicated and whose corruption led to the closure of the Malaysian labor market, has been trying to control the Malaysian labor market from the beginning.

Former BIA Joint Secretary General Mohammad Fakhrul Islam says, "We ourselves do not know those who have been listed. How did the Malaysian government recognize them? In fact, a part of the previous syndicate along with some new influential people are behind these and there has been major corruption in this case."

However, Expatriates' Welfare Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury has rejected allegations of syndicate or any such activity.

Amidst various questions about agencies and medical centers, the Bangladesh government is considering the Malaysian Ministry of Human Resources' issuance of guidelines on the process and rules for hiring foreign workers on Sunday as a sign of the imminent 'opening of the labor market'.

The statement issued after issuing the directive states that the entire process of hiring foreign workers must be transparent, orderly, and carried out in accordance with the prescribed rules.

According to this directive from the Malaysian government, a foreign worker must go through eight steps before being hired or joining work in Malaysia.

In the first step, the hiring organization or employer will have to apply for employees from the relevant authorities or obtain approval. At the same time, a recruitment notice for the relevant vacant position will have to be published on a specific platform.

In the next step, interested employers will need to apply for a foreign worker quota at the Ministry of Human Resources' one-stop center.

After verifying the required documents online, a direct interview will be conducted by the concerned authorities and the decision on quota approval will be communicated.

The third step is to pay the levy or government fee related to the recruitment, which must be completed through the Malaysian Immigration Department and the MyIMMS system.

The employer will then collect the conditional approval letter. This process will also be completed through the one-stop center of the Ministry of Human Resources and the government-determined process.

Once this is done, the foreign worker will need to complete the required formalities through the Malaysian embassy or relevant diplomatic mission in their home country.

After these are completed, the sixth step will be to arrange for the recruitment of workers from the source country and sending them to Malaysia, and this will be done through a recruitment agency (RA) or recruiting agency.

In the seventh step, the visa with reference (video) for the foreign worker will be collected and in the last or eighth step, the entry of the foreign worker into Malaysia will be completed. With the completion of this step, the prescribed recruitment process will be completed.

In that directive, the Malaysian government advised employers to use the Foreign Workers Centralized Management System or FWCMS portal, the Malaysian government's foreign worker management platform, to find detailed information on the recruitment of foreign workers and a list of approved recruitment agencies.

Incidentally, the issue of opening the labor market received the most attention during Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's first foreign visit to Malaysia after the BNP government came to power in Bangladesh last February.