'Review construction sector quota' call
Published on: Tuesday, March 03, 2015
Penampang: The Government has been urged to review the system of approving quotas to engage foreign workers for the construction industry that is seen as not benefiting the builders and developers.Sabah Builders Association Deputy President Cheong Kwee Min said this is pertinent to ensure that they would not face a shortage of labourers to complete their projects.He said the association's members often complained about insufficient workers due to the existing quota system, among others.
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"We received many complaints and grouses from our members that the process of getting the quota approval takes between two and six months, which could affect their schedule to complete their projects."Once the builders are awarded projects, they expect to start work in two weeks' time, but how can they commence work if the quota has yet to be approved by the relevant departments?" he asked.Cheong said this to reporters during a Chinese New Year open house hosted by the association at its headquarters at Taman Suria, here, Sunday.He said even the small and medium-sized builders were facing difficulties pertaining to the quota application, which is sent to three government departments, including the Sabah Labour Department and the Immigration Department.
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He also urged the Government to approve the number of quotas based on their needs for such workers and not the amount of the contracts."Some members also regretted that their quota approvals did not meet their needs for workers because the approval given was often less than the number of foreign workers they had applied for.
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"For instance, a quota application for 30 foreign workers is approved for only 20 workers. We the builders know our needs and what are necessary to complete our projects. Hence, we hope the Government will seriously look into this because any delay in completing projects could cause us to pay liquidated and ascertained damages (LAD)," he said.Cheong also said locals are not interested to work as labourers in the industry and quite a number of them have attitude problems like simply not coming to work and quitting the job without informing the employers."Another difficulty faced by our members, especially the small and medium-sized builders, is when their skilled workers complete the work in less than six months."The problem arises when the levies for these workers are paid on a yearly basis and the builders do not know what to do with them (foreign workers) after they have finished the required task like painting and carpentry in less than a year."The builders cannot allow the workers to work with other employers as they would be violating the permits' conditions, and sending them back to their countries of origin would incur losses to the builders who have paid the levies for one year in full," he said.Hence, Cheong said the association hoped the Government would consider flexibility in the payment of levies by basing it on the number of months of hiring the workers.On the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to be enforced on April 1, Cheong said the new national tax policy would affect their profit margin and daily operation costs, among others."I cannot say whether our profit margin would be lower or higher after the GST implementation as it would depend on the suppliers of the construction materials."If the prices of the materials set by the suppliers are higher, then maybe our profit margin would be less," he said. "The same goes for our daily operation costs which could be higher or less because our budget for the contracts would also be affected," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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