The problem with foreign workers that affected the Malaysian construction industry in Selangor

The Malaysian construction industry plays an important role in generating wealth to the country and development of social and economic infrastructures and buildings. Due to unpleasant working conditions and availability of cheap foreign workers, majority of the construction companies preferred to hire them. Thus, the numbers of foreign workers had increased. In addition, employment of foreign workers has affected the quality of construction industry. This paper intends to identify the problems on hiring foreign workers in Malaysian Construction Industry, the impact of hiring foreign workers and ways to overcome problems in employment of them. The opinions and views of related construction companies were obtained from the questionnaire surveys and structured interviews which have been identified to give a clearer picture of the current situation of dependency level of foreign workers in Malaysia. It was found that they are not under skilled worker categories, receiving unclear information from employer and infectious diseases to the local that affected the Malaysian construction industry. It is important for the government to tighten the hiring rules of foreign workers and strengthening the national security, implementing the Industrialized Building System (IBS) and fully utilized the Construction Labour Exchange Centre Berhad (CLAS) and also the Construction Academy of Malaysia (CAM).