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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Retrenched Worker and Job Vacancy

The Minister of Human Resource was disappointed that not many of the Malaysian retrenched workers take the opportunity to undergo training. The Minister claimed that they are choosy and unwilling to change their mindset. Of course the Minister is entitled to say what he wants to say. I know him to be one of those hardworking ministers but not pushy enough to make things move in the Ministry.

There is a lack of details about the various training program offered by the Ministry of Human Resources. I have said often in this blog that any training program to be successful should be tailored to the market demand and also taking into consideration the existing skills of the workers. It is difficult to train a middle aged retrenched worker in a totally new set of skills unrelated to his previous job. Training for job conversion requires a lot of cooperation from the industries.

Officials from the Ministry of Human Resource tend to simplify the employment scenario in the country by saying as an example, 10,000 people are retrenched but there are vacancies for 25,000 jobs. Problem arises is that the vacancies are not suitable for the job applicant. In this present downturn, most of the retrenched workers come from the manufacturing sector. Most of them are unskilled or semi skilled. The vacancies that exist will probably come from the service sector and the estates. Hence, one can imagine that it is not easy to migrate from the manufacturing sector to the estates. Hence, the number of vacancies and the number of retrenched workers do not reflect the actual employment situation on the ground. A lot of retrenched workers don’t bother to report to the Ministry of Human Resource, especially the Chinese workers. In the same way, a lot of employers don’t bother to report about job vacancies in their companies.

The estate sector and the construction sector are regarded as hard labour with low pay by Malaysians. Living in the estate is not the cup of tea for many Malaysians. I have alluded to this in one of my postings and I will not repeat here. Until they improve the pay and the perks, Malaysians will continue to avoid the estates. A general worker of RM600 can never survive even if they stay in the estate. Until we have a minimum wage, Malaysians will continue to avoid what is generally regarded as dirty, dull and manual work. Often, it is a job with no career path. 

7 comments:

Dr.HelpAll said...

Dr.currently what i have experienced is employer's are taking advantage of the situation.
They call for job opening and interview 100-200 people but shortlist to 5-10.
It's like get the best and cheapest.
today i went for an interview:production operator in Penang Rm580mth 12hrs a day.
imagine some bangla,indon,myanmar,nepal is earning more than what are offered to locals.
for your knowledge the factory chairman is ex Penang CM.
i was earning 1.5k logistics exec which is moderate for today's living.
went for a waiter job rm5 per hour but rejected for the age...

feel like want to enter politic and become katak..lots of perk.
Sorry sir but have to speak out of frustration.

Dr.HelpAll said...

wish to give opinion..the economic meltdown is temporary,it's like start for step one.
wish that bush burn in hell!
The only way out is stimulus package distributed domestically for export,loan,entrepreneur.
If we allow some many foreign workers and locals need to entrepreneurs at hte same par.
toll hike please tell them they made enough.
Taxi permits please give individually.
subsidies for edible consumer products

simniu said...

马华和民政哪一个较得民心呢,也许两个都不是,可是人人都需给国阵面子。
在马华处处受为难的人,能不能成立多一个华人政党呢,也许人民厌倦了旧面孔,您所成立的政黨一定还能吸引些反对党,成为国阵第一华人政党。
不然看能不能把民政在中南马的实力扩大,让你们成为国阵最大的华人政党。
希望小小的见识能有所作用。

simniu said...

马华和民政哪一个较得民心呢,也许两个都不是,可是人人都需给国阵面子。
在马华处处受为难的人,能不能成立多一个华人政党呢,也许人民厌倦了旧面孔,您所成立的政黨一定还能吸引些反对党,成为国阵第一华人政党。
不然看能不能把民政在中南马的实力扩大,让你们成为国阵最大的华人政党。
希望小小的见识能有所作用。

Mike said...

在一个村庄里,住着一位睿智的老人,村里有什么疑难问题都来向他请教。有一天聪明又调皮的孩子,想要故意为难那位老人。

他捉了一只小鸟,握在手掌中,跑去问老人:“老爷爷,听说您是最有智慧的人,不过我却不相信。如果您能猜出我手中的鸟是活还是死的,我就相信了。”老人注视着小孩子狡黠的眼晴,心中有数,如果他回答小鸟是活的,小孩会暗中加劲把小鸟掐死;如果他回答是死的,小孩就会张开双手让小鸟飞走。

老人拍了拍小孩的肩膀笑着说:“这只小鸟的死活,就全看你的了!”

How the coalition government handle the Perak Fiasco clearly determine her faith in the next GE. Listen to the people or continue the path to abyss.

l藍海 said...

不怕你们捕捉人,
只怕你们不捉人。

Myhong23 said...

Dr,
It never easy to switch jobs at mid-age. For long terms survival, Malaysia has to move away from low tech and labor intensive manufacturing activities to perhaps, High Tech, Services, etc. for obvious reasons – competitiveness and in line with latest “policy” to uplift the people pay and then living standard. These new sectors require totally different skill-set for those retrenched workers. Are the workers ready for that? Is officers of HR Ministry knew how to transform the workers towards that? Or, at least, they should be willing to listen to the problem before finding solution? Otherwise, statistics is meaningless. I have yet to see some meaningful activities in such transformation.
Malaysian workers mindset is another issue. Those manufacturing operators have been doing the same thing for the past many years, following the similar simple procedures in operating machines, jobs processes, etc which make them no difference from foreign workers. Just look at the smaller scale, how often the companies change Business Processes. Even when they change, the management will face tough time from workers in providing full co-operations. MNC could afford to hire Change Management Experts (some also crab, theory talk), while Local SMB will save such money for facility expansion. Management commitment is very crucial in determine the success. Look at another aspect – computerization. How many Government agencies or SMB fail in such changing of Business Process? Many workers and even management still want the old Business Processes, which is already eliminated with new system. The old Business Processes existed due to the limitation in old or perhaps manual system, but the workers still want such processes. The worst is they keep pin point the weakness of new processes (anyway no perfect solution) while ignoring their advantages. The management must always believe it and push hard and ensure the workers think like them.
If I remember correctly, Tiger Wood changed his stroke when he was at his peak in 2003/2004. It took him year to improve that while seeing the performance drops during the transition period. He believes that new stroke can bring him to another higher milestone while the old stroke can’t.
Thus, can the management push for this when they believe something is right? Can Minister push for something if he believe so? And, it is must be continuous. The Minister may go by then. (If my observation is right, KSU is the one who run the show, while Minister is spokesperson. In this case, can KSU and his warlord change) Look further, can Umno warlord realize their problem and change? Ex-PM said “my survival is depending on party and not people”.

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