Kuala Lumpur: There are 2,125,587 foreign workers in the country of which 130,391 are in Sabah.
Ranau Member of Parliament, Datuk Jonathan Yasin, said the plantation sector was the largest sector that hired foreign workers with a total of 76,726, followed by the agriculture sector with 26,736.
Advertisement
Foreign workers were also reported to be working in the Services sector (7,783), Manufacturing (6,870), Domestic Help (6,844), Construction (5,345), and Mining and Quarrying (87).
Jonathan obtained the data to questions of the Dewan Rakyat.
He asked the Minister of Human Resources to state the current number of foreign workers in Sabah and what proactive measures the Ministry had taken to overcome the shortage of workers in plantations in Sabah.
According to him, the problem of shortage of manpower in the plantation sector in Sabah is a critical issue involving aspects of security, economy and human rights.
Therefore, the Federal and State Governments have implemented several strategic measures to address this issue through four main initiatives.
In the Targeted Regularisation and Recalibration Programme, he said, the Sabah Government is carrying out this specific programme on foreign workers without valid documents in the plantation sector.
“Through this programme, employers in the plantation and agriculture sectors are required to register their foreign workers to obtain a valid Temporary Work Visit Pass (PLKS). This is to ensure that foreign workers have a clear identity and are protected by law.
“This strategic measure not only strengthens the security and monitoring aspects, but also helps to ensure the continuity of plantation operations from disruption by enforcement actions, thus supporting the economic stability of the state’s agro-commodity industry,” he said.
The government is also implementing the Labour Law Transformation (Sabah Labour Ordinance). The amendment to the Sabah Labour Ordinance, which comes into effect on May 1, 2025, is a transformative step to align the rights and welfare of workers in Sabah with the Employment Act 1955 in Peninsular Malaysia.
This legal transformation, he said, focuses on improving work quality standards by setting a more competitive minimum wage, reducing working hours, and enforcing stricter social protection to ensure worker safety.
“This initiative is not just aimed at upholding workers’ rights, but also functions as a two-pronged strategy to reduce dependence on foreign labour by attracting locals to venture into the plantation sector through rebranding the 3D (Difficult, Dangerous, Dirty) work image into a more conducive and fair working environment,” he said.
Apart from that, he said, TVET and Mechanisation Empowerment programmes are also being carried out. The government is actively driving the TVET empowerment and mechanisation agenda to reduce the need for manual labour and improve the efficiency of farm operations through the integration of modern technology.
“This initiative is being implemented by expanding the TVET programme through the Ministry of Plantations and Commodities by training local youth in farm technology, such as the use of drones for fertilisation and mechanical harvesting systems.
“To support this transformation, the government has also introduced more competitive salary incentives, targeting RM2,500 and above for local TVET graduates who fill supervisory and technical positions, thus creating a more professional and attractive work ecosystem compared to the foreign worker salary scheme,” he said.
Jonathan added that other initiatives include advertising job vacancies on the MYFutureJobs Portal, where employers are now required to advertise job vacancies on the portal for at least seven to 14 days before being allowed to apply for foreign workers.
This, he said, is aimed at ensuring that locals are given priority for every available vacancy.
