By Athi Shankar
GEORGE TOWN: A top investment promoter and a prominent trade unionist here have demanded for a comprehensive long term blueprint to stabilise and govern the country’s employment sector.
They said the blueprint should encompass the schooling, education and training programmes to enable the country to constantly produce skilled and knowledgeable manpower.
They partly blamed the country’s education standards for the country’s failure to produce enough skilled and knowledgeable workers to fill up various types of jobs.
InvestPenang executive committee chairperson Lee Kah Choon said that the federal government’s current flip-flop policy has caused anxiety and uncertainty among local and foreign investors.
He said the ban on foreign workers was one fine example of the flip-flop policy.
Lee pointed out at the government’s ban on recruitment of foreign workers as a main reason for causing criticial manpower shortage in manufacturing sector in the country.
“This would thwart the country’s transformation from low-end low-income sector to high-end high-income economy.
“We have to phase out the low-income employment in stages.
“Even if our local manpower move to high-income jobs, we can’t simply do away with low-end and low-income jobs,” Lee told a press conference in his office today.
He said a comprehensive labour policy would stabilise the employment market and guide employers to manage their human resources operations efficiently.
InvestPenang is an entity of the State Government.
Its primary focus is to sustain, rejuvenate and further promote the business milieu in the State of Penang, through continued investments and the high-technological development of its industrial sector.
Federal government has justified its ban on foreign manpower saying that it was to reduce dependence on foreigners to carry out low-end jobs.
The Putrajaya administration wants employers to hire unemployed locals for such jobs.
Worrying trend
Since Penang is a manufacturing hub in the country, Lee described the state’s employment was now “worrying.”
He said manufacturing sector had recovered from the global financial crunch last year and was now facing growing business and demands.
“However, their growth is being halted by labour constraints,” he said, adding that even the service sector was feeling the pinch.
He blamed the federal government flip-flop policy's which had created a non-conducive business environment for existing and potential investors, be it local or foreign.
“In long run even existing companies may move away to other places,” Lee warned.
He said Penang’s manufacturing sector currently has at least 1,500 vacancies for operators to be filled.
The sector currently has some 300 multi-national companies (MNCs) and employs about 250,000 workers.
While Singaporeans and Taiwanese are the biggest factory operators in Penang, Americans, Europeans and Japanese remain highest investors in monetary terms.
Lee was commenting on yesterday’s statement by visiting Japanese ambassador Masahiko Horie, who warned that Japanese electronics and electrical (E & E) companies in Penang may have to relocate their operations elsewhere due to severe labour shortage.
Malaysian Trade Union Congress Penang branch secretary K Veeriah however, cautioned that Masahiko statement could be a ploy to force the federal government to lift the ban on foreign workers.
“Most these companies want to suppress wages enjoyed by locals by recruiting cheaper foreigners,” he said.
He said that many locals, mostly above age 40, were now jobless after being retrenched through voluntary separation schemes (VSS).
He said certain factories do not employ locals above the age 38 because they prefer to hire “younger operators with lower wages.”
He noted that several factories have failed to observe rules and regulations pertaining to occupational health and safety (OSH) by operating in deplorable working condition.
For instance, certain factories in Penang free industrial zone (FIZ), like Robert Bosch, compel their workers to work standing for nearly 12 hours even during graveyard shifts.
Labour shortage
International labour movements have disapproved the ‘stand-and-work’ operations as hazardous to workers health.
“Such work operations forced workers to quit prematurely and also thwarted locals from seeking employment in these factories.
“This causes high manpower turnover and labour shortage,” claimed Veeriah.
He said all these problems can be resolved if the federal government implement a comprehensive long term blueprint to govern the employment sector.
“Productivity, profits and investment interests alone should not be the priorities.
“The education system, training programme and, workers welfare and rights shall also be enhanced,” Veeriah insisted.
