More than 30,000 workers retrenched after economic downturn began

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 30,000 workers were retrenched after the economic downturn began at the end of 2008.
Deputy Home Minister Jelaing Mersat told Parliament on Tuesday that the Labour Department had recorded 34,173 workers retrenched up to this month, including 8,805 foreign workers.
However, there was no record on the breakdown of where the foreign workers were from.
The Government had then frozen foreign workers intake in electrical/electronics subsectors, textile and all services subsectors except for cooks in restaurant, resort workers, cleaners, from Jan 28, he said.
He said in reply to questions from Tengku Razaleigh Hamsah (BN Gua Musang) and Fong Kui Lun (DAP Bukit Bintang).
Razaleigh had asked for the number of Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Filipina and Thai workers that had been retrenched during the economic crisis while Fong asked the Ministry about the sectors for foreign workers that were frozen and then reopened and the number whose permits had expired and sent back to their home countries.
Jelaing said that from the 549,242 foreign workers, as of the first quarter of this year, 214,425 had left for their home countries by midyear.
He also said that, as of July 27, the electrical/electronics and textile subsectors in the manufacturing sector had been opened again for foreign workers following improvement in the economy and demand for the products in the subsectors.
A technical committee had been set up to determine the qualifications, conditions and the need for foreign workers for each industry and companies that apply for foreign workers, he said.

-the star-