“Why they come M’sia to work” – Indonesian Factory Rejects All Female Job Applicants Under 155cm

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A mass job interview programme at an electronics factory in Batam, Indonesia near Johor went viral on social media recently due to the peculiar process that all-female job applicants must undergo in its initial stage.

Shared by @itskakwil on TikTok, a video of the job interview filtering process has garnered over 1.2 million views and more than 41,600 likes as of the time of writing.

A factory in Batam rejects all female job applicants under 155cm tall

Get this, the electronics factory apparently checks the height of all female job applicants during the mass interview programme using a Limbo-esque horizontal bar.

Job applicants are required to queue up, take off their shoes and go through the horizontal bar, which is placed at a height of 155cm.

Accordingly, those who can walk under the horizontal bar i.e. those under 155cm will immediately be rejected.

In the overlaid text of the video, @itskakwil wrote,

“POV: If you want to work in Batam, you need to be a minimum of 155cm tall”

At the end of the video, you can see the sea of job applicants waiting for their turn to go through the dreaded horizontal bar.

Watch the video here:

@itskakwil Batam dengan segala keindahannya ? #loker #lokerbatam #lowongankerja #batam #batamtiktok #fyp ♬ Sepenuh Hati by Rony Parulian x Andi Rianto – Sadvibes?

Indonesians working at factories in Malaysia react to the video

In the comments section, many Indonesians working in Malaysia shared their 2 cents on the peculiar job requirement, saying that this was 1 of the reasons why they decided to go work at factories in our country.

One commenter said that such a requirement doesn’t exist in factory jobs in Malaysia and that one only needs to be hardworking to work here.

This sentiment was shared by several other commenters, some of whom shared their height, including a slightly over 140cm-tall Indonesian woman who has been working at factories in Malaysia for over 9 years.

Meanwhile, several other commenters questioned why the factory is requiring workers to be 155cm or taller as it seems to be rather arbitrary.

One sarcastically asked what kind of job interview is this and whether the company was looking for slaves rather than workers.

Besides that, many compared working at factories in Indonesia and in Malaysia while praising our country’s job opportunities and worker welfare.

So, what do you guys think of the viral video? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Also read: “Tell me about you” – Odd SG Interviewer Says This Question Means Talk About Your Family and Not Past Jobs