Sarawak's Labour Policy on Foreign Worker Recruitment and Expatriates

Sarawak has its own jurisdiction and autonomy to decide policies for the hiring of foreign workers. According to the new foreign worker management platform in Sarawak - SANSOLS, Sarawak distinguishes between “General Worker”, “Skilled Worker” and “Expatriates”. 

General Worker Category

Permitted Sector	Permitted country
Plantation Manufacturing Construction Logging/ Mining/ Quarry  Services	Indonesia

Under the “General Worker” category, there are 5 permitted industries, namely, Plantation, Manufacturing, Construction, Logging/ Mining/ Quarry, and Services. The only permitted source country for the General Worker Category is Indonesian.

If you are a restaurant owner, whether a hotel restaurant, coffee house (i.e. Kopitiam), or regular restaurant, you may hire Indonesians as servers. Laundromats and Recycle Waste facilities are also permitted to hire Indonesians in Sarawak. 

Skilled Worker Category 

Permitted Sector	Permitted country
Plantation Manufacturing Construction Logging/ Mining/ Quarry  Services	Indonesia Thailand  Cambodia  Nepal  Myanmar  Laos  Vietnam  Philippines  Pakistan  Bangladesh  India  China

Sarawak recognises up to 12 countries for the “Skilled Worker” category. Spa and Reflexology services fall under the “Skilled Worker” category. For restaurants, cooks are considered “Skilled Worker” and therefore can be hired from most of the source countries listed for specialist restaurants. For Textile Shops and Bookstores, employers may hire skilled workers as supervisors only, and from Indonesia only. Lastly, for Vehicle Workshop, employers may hire Skilled Workers too from the countries listed except from India and China. 

Expatriate Category 

Expatriates are different from Skilled Workers. Broadly, expatriates in Malaysia typically refer to white collar workers like consultants, engineers, management executives or software engineers, while Skilled Workers are typically in grey collar jobs, such as technicians, cooks, spa therapists, or crane operators. 

Permitted Sector (Non- Exhaustive)	Permitted country
Oil, Gas & Energy  Electronics & Electrical  Education Digital Economy  Tourism  Financial Services Healthcare  Agriculture Wholesale and Retail Communication, Content and Infrastructure  Palm Oil  Business Services  And other Professional Fields	All Nationalities

All Expatriates in Sarawak must demonstrate “special skills”. All applications must be approved by the Immigration, Labour and Management Unit (ILMU) under the Premier’s Department of Sarawak. Generally, Sarawak is industry agnostic for the hiring of Expatriates as long as special skills can be demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Localisation committee. 

Our website and its contents are provided for general information purposes only and nothing on this website or in its contents is intended to provide professional advice. Please contact us at info@migratesafe.org or +6082-295175 for more information.