Barbers, goldsmiths still face foreign worker shortage despite govt approval

 

The required skilled foreign workers for the three sectors are traditionally from India.

KUALA LUMPUR: Barbers and goldsmiths are still short on manpower despite Putrajaya last year allowing these sectors, including textile stores to hire up to 7,500 foreign workers, says a deputy minister.

R Ramanan, who is the entrepreneur development and cooperatives deputy minister, said only a third of the allocation has been filled so far, Bernama reported.

“The human resources ministry informed me that there are still 5,000 spots that are yet to be filled,” he was quoted as saying.

Ramanan said his ministry will now seek an explanation from human resources minister Steven Sim.

Last September, Sim’s predecessor, V Sivakumar said the government had agreed to allow the hiring of foreign workers in these three sectors which had been frozen previously.

The required skilled foreign workers for these three sectors are traditionally from India.

Sivakumar was reported to have said that some businesses were forced to shut down or were on the verge of shutting down due to the inability to recruit foreign workers.

Malaysian Indian Hairdressing Saloon Owners Association assistant secretary M Meenaq Kumar previously told FMT that the need to hire foreign workers was also because locals were not inclined to work in barber shops as it involved long hours and working on weekends and public holidays. - FMT