The recalibration exercise involving undocumented foreign workers will be useful to set things right in the private security sector, according to the Security Industry Association of Malaysia (PIKM) Selangor chapter. Its chairman Datuk Dr S. Prabakaran said several security companies resorted to employing undocumented migrant workers as security guards to save costs.
“When the government enforced an increase in the minimum wage, it had an impact on businesses. This made some companies take in undocumented workers from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh to work as security guards and pay them lower salaries. “Some did not pay for their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and made no contribution to Socso,” he told The Star.
He said such illegal employment cost the government tax revenue as the employers avoided paying the charges and fees stipulated. Prabakaran stated that the government’s recalibration programme would provide employers with the opportunity to legally hire security guards. He said employers would only need to spend RM4,000 at most to recruit these illegal guards, who were already in Malaysia under the programme.
In comparison, he said companies needed to spend at least RM5,000 to hire a fresh security guard from Nepal, the only source country recognised by the government for the security sector. He urged the government to revisit the plan for the recruitment of security guards from other source countries, such as Bangladesh.
“The demand for security guards has steadily increased after two years of the pandemic, and the supply of guards from Nepal will not be enough. “Before the change of government, there was already a plan to bring in Bangladeshis as security guards, but now we have to start all over again,” he said.
Chico Force Sdn Bhd group adviser Datuk Seri Junior Khoo concurred, saying the proposal to add more source countries for security guards must be reconsidered.“The previous Home Minister said the government wanted to take in guards from other countries to support the security sector. But we are left confused now.
“The demand for security guards is very high, so I hope that the government will take a good look again,” he said. Khoo said that while the recalibration programme could help address the shortage of security guards, the authorities must also ensure the illegal workers were screened properly.
Meanwhile, the Nepal Embassy said its undocumented workers’ interest in the recalibration programme “is not just limited to the security sector”. First Secretary Pratik Karki said 70% of Nepalis working in Malaysia were in the manufacturing sector, followed by the service, agriculture and plantation sectors.
