Foreign Labour & Employment

Malaysia as a country relies heavily on the foreign workforce for its economic activities. Malaysia is home to at least 2 million migrant workers and these workers make up approximately 15% of the workforce (CNBC 2020). There has been many recent controversies regarding the treatment of migrant workers by their employers which has resulted in import bans and a loss of reputation of said companies. ESG (Environmental, social and governance) compliance is increasingly a business requirement, and companies will need to pay more attention to these factors to prevent adverse events such as import bans and product boycotts from happening.

Blockchain solutions have proven to work in human resources in the critical areas of procurement, immigration documentation, processing of work permit, and allocation of compensation (WEF 2018).

Zetrix can be used as an infrastructure to build a smart contract migrant worker management system. Firstly, a foreign agency can register the worker into the system, which will create a blockchain digital identity for the worker, which contains the non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) of the worker. Companies looking to bolster their workforce can use this information to procure workers for their business. A work contract can then be drafted for the worker as proof that the worker has secured a job legally. If the worker transitions to a new job, the contract can be easily transferred to the new employer. These systems help employers to make sure that all their workers are well documented and are not legal liabilities.

Using a digital identity and a work contract, the employer can pay the worker via a blockchain wallet. The employer will be able to track the work hours of the worker, and pay the worker fairly. The worker also enjoys the perks of being able to utilise the blockchain to send money back home in the matter of seconds, without all the hassle and fees. Employers can easily prove that they are paying livable wages to their workers due to the transparency and the immutability of the blockchain.