No thaw on freeze on certain foreign worker hire; Kula unsure why

Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran has admitted to being in the dark as to why the federal government has continued the freeze on the hiring of foreign workers for several service industry sub-sectors.

He said this when asked about Pakatan Harapan's decision to maintain the previous administration's move to freeze the hiring of foreign workers for seven sub-sectors under the services sector.

"I do not know why it was frozen. I asked officials from my ministry and also the Home Ministry," he said at a town hall session organised by the Federation of Malaysian Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MAICCI) in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He added he had advised the cabinet that all seven sub-sectors be authorised to take in foreign workers once again.

"It may take some time to convince the other cabinet members to reopen this sub-sectors to foreign workers hiring," Kulasegaran told the more than 500 Indian traders who attended the session.

MAICCI had called on the government to re-evaluate the foreign worker hiring freeze on the seven sub-sectors.

According to MAICCI president N Gobalakrishnan, the seven sectors included barber shops, goldsmiths, retailers and wholesalers, textile shops, restaurants, scrap metal dealers and newspaper distribution outlets.

"These sectors have been frozen since 2009. The previous government never gave us specific reasons for this move.

"It is clear that the majority of industry players in these sectors are Indian traders.

"We are grateful to the Harapan government for its willingness to look at the restaurants, retailing and wholesaling sectors. Please also allow this flexibility to be extended to other sectors which are still frozen," said Gobalakrishnan.

MAICCI also handed over a memorandum to Kulasegaran calling for an end to the freeze policy and called on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to intervene in the issue.

MAICCI is a combined business hall comprising 20 organisations representing over 36,000 Indian traders in the country. - Mkini