Jan 10 — The Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants recently agreed that fast-food and similar concept restaurants should no longer be allowed to hire foreign workers and must give priority to Malaysians to take up the job. Fast-food restaurants like McDonald's are affected, but not food-and-beverage outlets that hired waitresses like Starbucks.

The committee believes that many locals, particularly youths, school-leavers and university students are interested in working in fast-food outlets, and the number of them is actually growing. Therefore, the committee decided to ban these restaurants from hiring foreign workers, to give priority to local job-seekers. Indeed, many students will choose working in fast-food outlets to earn extra pocket money and gain work experiences. Fast-food restaurants usually provide training for new employees before they start working and staff at front service counters must first master certain skills before they are allowed to serve customers. It is indeed a good opportunity for young people who are keen to gain experiences, to learn while earning extra pocket money.

Moreover, as the committee said, the cooking skills required in fast-food outlets is less demanding and can be learned easily through training, it can thus be used as a practical training platform for young people who are preparing to join the food-and-beverage industry.

Anyway, it all depends on the willingness of the industry to give up foreign workers and hire locals. Many operators have complained that locals are reluctant to take up the jobs, forcing them to hire foreign workers. Under the requests of various business operators, the authorities thus allowed more industries to hire foreign workers. Are locals really unwilling to take up these jobs? It is worthy of further study.

Today, the committee found that many locals are actually interested in working in fast-food outlets and therefore, the move of banning foreign workers from fast-food outlets has proven that as long as business operators are willing to pay reasonable salary and comply with all labour welfare regulations, local job-seekers are actually not as picky as imagined.

The decision is good news for local young job seekers but operators said that the ban is too hasty. First of all, fast-food operators criticised that it is unfair as many sectors are allowed to hire foreign workers but they chose to impose the ban only on fast-food industry instead of other industries. Moreover, if the ban is going into effect immediately without a buffering period, affected operators might be caught off guard and face a dilemma of not able to hire local workers to replace foreign workers. Some operators think that the authorities must give at least two or three years of buffering period so that they can be psychologically prepared. In the face of the implementation of minimum wage policy this year and the surge of electricity tariffs causing the increase of costs, many operators are reluctant to take the risk of staff shortages. It is understood that some operators also hope that it is not a comprehensive ban but requiring operators to hire foreign and local workers according to a certain ratio, to achieve a win-win situation.

The public and business operators have different views on the policy allowing foreign workers to enter different walks of life. Members of the public are asking for good services while business operators attach importance to profitability, a balance must be struck between the two. The trend of heavy reliance on foreign workers is actually a common phenomenon in many countries and regions. It is necessary for the authorities to measure the pros and cons and make sensible study to avoid the proliferation of foreign workers that could bring various social problems while neglecting the work demands of local people.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.