Ishpreet Singh said Nepali workers were now allowed to work in various sectors, causing salaries to rise because of greater demand.
“The only realistic way to reduce costs (of providing security services) is to stop allowing Nepalis to work in other sectors,” he said.
The high cost of providing security to school was raised last week by the prime minister’s senior adviser, Daim Zainuddin. He was reported to have said that security “costs more than the assets they’re guarding”.
Speaking to FMT, Ishpreet said he was not sure whether Daim was aware of the issue: the influx of Nepali workers into other sectors. None now wanted to work in security, making it more expensive to hire them.
He said the demand for Nepali security guards had affected security companies in more ways than just higher salaries.
“Back in the day, Nepalese could only work in the security sector and we didn’t have any issue as far as recruitment went and the Nepalese agents used to bear the plane ticket and levy costs.
“However, in the last few years, the government opened up other sectors for Nepali workers and now we need to bear the cost for the levy, the plane ticket, their medical bills and their accommodation.”
Some Nepali workers also ran away or went to work in other sectors with less risky work. “We bear the cost of training them and when they become trained security guards, they run off and we lose even more money.”
He urged the incoming Pakatan Harapan-led federal government to look into the issue, as well as other demands placed on security companies.
“These include two CCTV cameras, eight vehicle drive recorder (VDR) cameras, a key clock-in device which uses a paper roll, uniforms, walkie-talkies, a patrolling officer and one operations manager, among other things.”
He said such costs also contributed to higher rates being charged for security services.