It has been proven that digitalisation and technology adoption allow those in the labour market to progressively move forward to meet the demands of future work and service delivery.
In the effort to improve their service delivery to the public, the Sarawak Labour Department has taken a step forward towards the digitalization of their services.
Among the digital initiatives that have been introduced and implemented are;
- Spot-me
- Monitoring System on the Employment of Non-Sarawakians
- Electronic- Non Resident Employment Repository License System (E-NRE)
- Ex-Labourcase
During a recent interview with RAKAN Sarawak in Kuching, Director of the Sarawak Labour Department, Awang Radwan Bin Awang Omar said that the systems are introduced to broaden the services provided by the department so they are not limited at the counter.
Spot-me is a record attending system for internal staffs and officers which is officially used by the department this year to replace the previous manual system.
According to Awang Radwan, officers can enter their attendance by simply just logging into the apps on their smart phone when they are within the vicinity of the office as the system is equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) feature.
By implementing this system, he can monitor the attendance of officers throughout Sarawak when they log in their attendance within the radius of 200 meter of the office space.
As of now, the department has 16 labour offices (Pejabat Tenaga Kerja – PTK) throughout Sarawak.
“While this system is effective it does have its flaw, as it does not work well there is no Internet connection,” he said, explaining that the system might delay its detection of officers whereabout due to weak Internet connection.
“Thus, I need to call them to confirm about their whereabout,” he said adding that improvements are needed to upgrade the system.
MSEN is an online system for the application of Approval in Principle (AP) for licensing of employment for non-Sarawakians.
“Employers who wish to apply for AP can do it online and they need to key in the relevant information in the system. However, the employers also need to submit hardcopy of the information so we can verify the information we received from them through online,” he said.
AP is a policy approval that stipulates the number of employees according to the position allowed to be brought in to work in Sarawak.
Employers who employ non-resident workers in Sarawak must obtain a License to Employ Non-Resident Workers as provided under section 119 of the Labour Ordinance (Sarawak Chapter 76).
Employers must apply for a Letter of AP before applying for a License to Employ Non-Resident Employee.
Following this, employers can download the employment license through the E-NRE Repository Licence system.
“Unlike before, employers need to come down to the office to collect the license physically from the counter. But now, they can download and print the license themselves, hence saving a lot of time for the employers,” he said.
The Ez-Labourcase is a system to record and monitor labour complaints and claims.
Labour complaint is the sense of dissatisfaction voiced by employees against employers regarding their employment issue or employment contract.
According to Awang Radwan, the system has been proven to be very effective especially during the Covid pandemic period where the labour courts were not allowed to physically operate and officers have to work from home.
“It has been difficult as they need to file in the case within 90 days otherwise it cannot be file again,” he said.
Aside from that, in the efforts to digitalise their services for better service delivery, Awang Radwan added that the department has also conducted virtual or remote meetings and discussions for labour education programmes and to provide advice on labour laws with clients through Zoom and Google Meet.
