Malaysian Government Imposes New Requirement on Hiring of Expatriates
05 October 2020
As announced by the Ministry of Human Resources through its Media Statement dated 8 July 2020, the Government of Malaysia (“Government”) has now imposed a new requirement on the hiring of expatriates. This is in line with the Government’s initiative to prioritise the employment of local Malaysians in the current challenging economic climate triggered by the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.
Companies that intend to hire new expatriates are now required to advertise job vacancies via the JobsMalaysia Portal for a period of no less than 30 days. Only companies that are unable to find suitable local candidates after the 30-day period may proceed with their application to hire expatriates.
This new requirement entails, in gist, the following process:-
- Companies first need to create an online account in the JobsMalaysia Portal and upload a notice to advertise the relevant job vacancy.
- A day after the job vacancy is advertised, the Company must fill up the Borang PDx form and email the same to pegawaidagang@mohr.gov.my as notice of its intention to hire an expatriate to fill the advertised job vacancy. The Borang PDx form may be obtained from http://jtksm.mohr.gov.my/en/penggajian-pegawai-dagang.
- JobsMalaysia will then contact the Company to verify the job vacancy.
- If qualified local job seekers apply for the vacancy, the Company must consider their applications. If the Company is unsuccessful in recruiting local job seekers after 30 days from the date of advertisement, JobsMalaysia will then issue a certificate with a recommendation by the Department of Labour on the hiring of an expatriate to fill the job vacancy.
- The Company may only proceed with the relevant projection or work pass applications once it receives the aforementioned certificate from JobsMalaysia and must upload the same with their relevant applications on the Expatriate Services Division (ESD) portal.
Alert prepared by Sara Lau (Senior Associate) of Skrine