The Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia (BEIM) fully agrees with the government that employers who continue to hire foreign workers who do not have the legitimate work permits should be held accountable to the letter.

The Immigration Department’s announcement that it would freeze the bank assets and accounts of employers hiring illegal workers is a measure being taken owing to employers continuing to disregard the ethical principles of employment / hiring cheap, alternative labour.

It is a forgone fact that foreign labour is cheaper by the dozens compared to engaging locals. While the business community may postulate that otherwise they may not be able to sustain their business in the increasingly competitive marketplace, various bodies have expressed serious and valid concerns to the contrary.

However, BEIM strongly condemns employers who want to hire illegals as such practices are unethical and can easily turn the employee a victim of abuses.

Hence, freezing bank assets and accounts of employers who flout by hiring illegal workers is justified. Such drastic measures should send a strong signal that ethics in business knows no compromises.

BEIM wishes to also take this opportunity to raise several related questions in line with its advocacy role in society.

Firstly, what is the status of the MyEG exercise announced and undertaken by the government to legalise tens of thousands (if not in the millions) of workers who came into the country legally but have been deemed illegal owing to a lapse in renewals of work permits?

Has the government legalised these cases and if so how many are now available as legal workers in the country?

Secondly, if a foreign worker is still waiting for the work permits after having applied through MyEG, would hiring such workers be deemed as ‘illegal’?

In supporting the government that wants to ensure that Malaysian employers do not abuse and exploit the access to cheap labor, BEIM believes that ethical principles must apply across the board.

Both government agencies, recruiting agencies, sending and receiving countries and employers hiring foreign workers must be subjected to strong ethical principles.

When such principles governing recruiting, legalising and employing are not forthcoming and made transparent, then it will have a compounding factor on the nation as a whole.

And such measures as is now announced by the Immigration Department of Malaysia will create more contentious problems that make a mockery of a nation that is gung-ho in becoming a ‘high income nation’.

High income nations must raise the benchmark of business ethics in the country.