Kula: We'll review foreign worker application by restaurants case by case

PARLIAMENT | Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran (above) said his ministry would review requests from restaurants to bring in “foreign guest workers” on a case-by-case basis for now.

This comes after his proposal for all restaurants in the country to only recruit locals as cooks on June 22 received complaints from industry players.

“We had many objections from restaurants who said the new policy shift do not give them time to overcome the shortage in local workers in this country.

“But what we want is a win-win situation where there isn’t a blanket policy.

“We will give a chance to all restaurant owners to bring in foreign guest workers to work in this country,” Kulasegaran said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He added, however, that this was just a temporary solution as he was in discussion with Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to come up with a new policy on the intake of foreign workers, he said.

Kulasegaran stressed that his ministry would prioritise providing job opportunities to local workers over foreign workers.

“We have to remember, our over-reliance on foreign labour has to stop.

“We will examine and make suggestions and bring in a new policy,” he said.

He also spoke on Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto promise to raise the minimum wage to RM1,500, saying that the government believed it could be implemented that within the next five years.

“Recently, the wages technical committee has made a few recommendations and I will bring these to the cabinet for the cabinet to make its decision,” he said. - Mkini