BY NEVILLE TIMOTHY SANDERS
KUCHING: Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) organised a briefing conducted by HRD Corp on Terms & Conditions and Procedures on Wednesday (May 11).
The briefing was organised in order for Soppoa to register with HRD Corp under PSMB Act 2001. The expansion of PSMB Act 2001 has included additional sectors like palm oil that take effect from March 2021.
The sessions served as a platform to create and enhance awareness on the coverage of the PSMB Act 2001, which is to provide for the imposition and collection of a human resources development levy for the purpose of promoting the training and development of employees, apprentices and trainees for the registered employers training grants.
Soppoa chief executive officer Dr Felix Moh Mee Ho said that according to PMSB Act 2001, an employer was defined as ‘any person who has entered into a contract of service to employ any other person as an employee, including an agent, manager or factor of such first-mentioned person.’
“Therefore for employers with 10 or more Malaysian employees, it is compulsory to register with HRD Corp and is liable to pay monthly levy charged at the rate of 1% of the monthly wages of employees.
“However, employers with five to nine Malaysian employees are given the option to register HRD Corp and if they choose to register, the monthly levy is charged at the rate of 0.5% of the monthly wages of employees.”
He also mentioned that the registration must be done through HRD Corp’s website by submitting the Form 1.
Moh also mentioned that the levy collected by HRD Corp could be claimed by the employers upon the completion of trainings according to the Enhanced Terms and Conditions for Allowable Cost Matrix.
“The nine focused area courses that are developed with the aim of supporting government initiatives in nation building are Industry 4.0, Green Technology or Renewal Energy, FinTech, Smart Construction, Smart Farming, Aerospace industry, Block Chain, Micro-Credential and Future Technology.”
He also said that employers could opt for Employers-Specific Courses that are not listed under the priority areas and are typically conducted to meet the employers’ specific training requirement.
He encourage Soppoa members to tag along HRD Corp’s other value so that registered employers could enjoy various training offerings in accordance to their business and industry needs.
“Beyond that, they will also be able to utilise contributions and special funds from the government.”
