Job perks matter, not permanent stay

Seeing an Iranian customer who is almost done with her breakfast, the Iloilo province native says, “I will take care of your plate, Madame.”

He is also very kind in directing traffic for Bangladeshi workmate Zaif and fellow workers at Warisan Café inside the Royale Chulan Hotel here. He tells a fellow foreign worker to bring a pitcher of cold water right away even before the customer can think to ask for it.

The adrenaline’s up for this Filipino, now on his 14th straight day—without relief—working at the hotel that gives the “usual” rate of RM5 (PhP 70 at RM1 = PhP14) an hour.

Roy started at 7am and ended at 5pm that Wednesday. The energy level was perhaps a result of the amnesty that this former irregular (or what Malaysians call “illegal”) migrant worker just got weeks ago from Malaysian Immigration.

After a day’s work, Roy went to the posh Pavilion mall behind Royale Chulan—in shorts and slippers—while local and foreign buyers sport flashy office wear and shoes.

“I still believe I am a professional,” says this BS Industrial Technology (major in Electronics) graduate of the Western Visayas College of Science and Technology. “From the once many Filipinos who worked there when the hotel first opened shop two years ago, a few of us remain. My bosses like my work ethic.”

All that Roy currently has—the “proper” English accent (American or Filipino style), the work ethic, the praise from supervisors, and yes, the legal immigration status—has made Roy’s market value shoot up.

Now that a Malaysian government-owned corporation has launched a program where foreign talent and skill in identified sectors may be given up to a 10-year residence pass to stay in Southeast Asia’s second largest economy, Roy doesn’t have any more reason to hide in fear.

In the end, though, it is about a Malaysian company’s ability to give foreign professionals like Roy a better work package. “If neighboring hotels can offer me better rates,” says the 35-year-old, “I am ready to take it.”

Skilled foreign workers like Roy and Allan Cabiles (a graduate of Automotive Engineering Technology at the Technological University of the Philippines in Manila) are what Malaysia needs to further economic growth.

Cabiles and over 20 other Filipino workers, in fact, were sought after by The Otomotif College, an international school for the automotive industry. “I have been to Manila many times,” says Otomotif chief executive officer Adelaine Foo, a Malaysian-Chinese at the sidelines of an education conference here.

Most of TOC’s foreign employees are Filipinos, including one of Foo’s trusted aides Cabiles, who heads TOC’s training division. The Filipino’s educational qualifications, claims Foo, also suit TOC’s needs and, not surprisingly, his English proficiency is his added value.

“You can’t be a teacher at TOC without the appropriate college degree,” says Cabiles— “lucky” that his salaries and benefits are “competitive” and have kept him at TOC.

Retaining foreign and Malaysian talent while trying to attract over-300,000 overseas skilled Malaysians back home are among the initiatives of the year-old Talent Corporation (TalentCorp) that Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak formed.

Others may find surprising that skilled locals are leaving Malaysia and heading to “better-paying” countries like Singapore, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand, a World Bank-Malaysia office report showed. Even a 2011-2012 competitiveness report by the World Economic Forum showed that the brain drain incidence in Malaysia and Singapore is higher than the Philippines.

Which is why TalentCorp launched, among other programs, a Residence Pass program where “highly-qualified” foreign talent who have been in Malaysia for at least three years can apply for this pass so that they can stay for up to 10 years [Expatriates, or what Malaysians call skilled foreign workers, renew their RPs annually].

The RP will not be revoked if these expatriates change employers while they are not yet renewing it. These expatriates who have their spouses and children under 18 years old with them will also be awarded the same benefits and flexibility in finding work.

These talents must be working in 11 sectors that the Malaysian government identified as National Key Economic Areas in Tun Razak’s Economic Transformation Programme since becoming Malaysia’s sixth prime minister in 2009. These sectors are: oil, gas and energy; palm oil; financial services; business services; electronics and electrical; wholesale and retail; education; healthcare; communications, content and infrastructure; tourism; and agriculture.

Roy and Allan are working in the tourism and education sectors, making them eligible to apply for that 10-year residence pass.

But salaries do matter for them. Old 2006 data from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office show that an engineer can earn a low of US$420 to a high of US$840 monthly; senior engineers can get a low of US$840 and a high of US$1,400.

Wait ‘til one Filipino expatriate becomes a manager (low of US$1,600 to a high of US$3,200), or an executive (low of US$3,200 to a high of US$25,584). Filipino expatriates’ rates, says POLO data, are higher than counterparts coming from other labor-sending countries.

This package from TalentCorp will be good news to over 4,000 professionals and technical Filipino workers as well as to a few hundred administrative and managerial workers. Overseas Filipino workers heading to Malaysia are mostly female domestic workers, all “protected” by a Philippine ruling that foreign employers must pay trained domestic workers a minimum of US$400.

But knowing Filipino workers here, Consul Renato Villa of the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur thinks they will look for better-paying employers while noting that the package offered by TalentCorp is not permanent residency but a temporary residence permit.

Singapore’s not far away for Filipinos, too, Villa told the OFW Journalism Consortium.

Malaysian skilled talent themselves reflect the difference: of the over 300,000 professional Malaysians who went abroad, around 60 percent went to Singapore, says World Bank-Malaysia’s April 2011 economic monitor report.

And like these skilled Malaysians who went elsewhere, a new lease on life dropped on Roy since arriving in peninsular Malaysia two years ago as a tourist. Occupational mobility is his newfound source of confidence.

He reported for duty on a Thursday, his 15th straight day at work. He sported a dark brown waiter’s polo. Roy has yet to wear what his supervisors are sporting: a black suit with a bow tie. But his bosses have given Roy their trust: one time, Roy cleaned the most sought-after suite of Royale Chulan.

Hotel supervisors, Roy claims, want him promoted. “But at the right price,” Roy said. “We can talk over coffee.”