Employers Want Socso To Handle Foreign Workers' Medical Examination
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According to The Star, employers are requesting for the medical examination of foreign workers to be managed by the Social Security Organisation (Socso).
The president of SME Association of Malaysia Datuk Michael Kang said it would ease the management process of foreign workers’ welfare matters: “There is no point for the government to outsource an agent (to do that) since it can be done by Socso and the process is more transparent."
“It will also reduce costs if it is managed by just one agency,” he said in a joint press conference with Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran in Petaling Jaya yesterday.
The Human Resources Minister had earlier announced that starting on January 1st, social security protection of foreign workers would be placed under Socso.
As of now, the medical examination is managed by the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema), which charges RM180 per person.
Datuk Michael Kang said that turning over the process to Socso would allow it to function as a one-stop centre for foreign workers’ welfare matters. M. Kulasegaran said the suggestion could be considered even though the matter was under the Health Ministry’s jurisdiction. He also said that after Socso takes over foreign workers’ social security protection, there would be no need for Workmen’s Compensation for them: “There will no longer be discrimination between local and foreign workers, as stipulated under the Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention 1925 and the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards under the International Labour Organisation, which Malaysia has ratified.”
The Human Resources ministry has made several important changes this year, abolishing the system of recruiting foreign workers through agents and discontinuing the 30% employer contribution to the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF).
The ministry also announced that Nepalese workers can now be hired directly through government-to-government (G2G) initiative. The government is still negotiating with other countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and India to ease the process of hiring foreign workers.