Kuala Lumpur – The Minister of Human Resources
in a Press Statement on the 17th of January 2023 released the
ministry’s plans to expedite the application and approval process of the hiring
of foreign workers for critical sectors. Through this plan, employers from the five
critical sectors can submit their application through the FWCMS platform and
have their request processed and approved within 3 working days. Evidently,
this will greatly help the affected sectors.
Following the Minister’s Press
Statement, Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), Malaysian Association of
Hotel Owners (MAHO) and Malaysia Budget & Business Hotel Association
(MyBHA) have jointly released our Press Statements in response to express our
disappointments that the Hotel sector is not included in this plan as one of
the recipient sectors.
Before the pandemic, the hotel
sector has always been consistently ranked as the top three tourism receipt
contributors every year and ranked in the top 5 for total employment in the
larger Tourism Industry. Our sector was one of the worst hit during the
pandemic as businesses are unable to operate due to the declined patronage and
strict pandemic SOP of the time; displacing many employees from the hospitality
industry which then were snapped up by other industries.
The hotel sector has found it to be
difficult to replenish our workforce as hotel jobs are perceived as 3D - dirty,
dangerous and difficult works which has long been considered unappealing by
locals. We also have a problem recruiting new talents as the younger
generations, Gen-Z who prefers gig economy jobs and tend not to prefer working
long hours despite overtime pays. Previously-employed hotel staffs that was
displaced due to the pandemic also are not keen on rejoining as they have built
their career in other sectors during the lapsed period. Locals also do not tend
to stay long on hotel jobs and their high turnover rate adversely affect hotel
operations as it means we cannot maintain a consistent standard of service for
our patrons.
Hotels also have to contend with
additional work post-pandemic such as to comply with a high standard of safety
& hygiene SOP like the MAH Clean & Safe label to ensure the safety of
guests and staffs. This increased workload requires additional staffing and
extra hours in areas of security and housekeeping to maintain compliance and
service standards.
Additionally, the hotel sector lies
squarely in the hospitality industry which is labour intensive due to the
services we rendered. Without sufficient manpower to man the amenities we offer,
we cannot provide adequate services to the patrons. Eventually, this will
affect the country’s tourism reputation as our hospitality standard declines. This
decline, undermines the government effort to have Malaysia to be the
destination of choice for tourism especially in South-East Asia particularly
our competitiveness in comparison to countries like Thailand, Indonesia and
Vietnam.
Crucially, we want to make it clear
that the hotel sector is not giving priority to foreign workers to fill our
rosters compared to locals. However, faced by the acute manpower shortage in
critical position such as housekeeping and F&B areas, necessitates
hoteliers to resort to employing foreign workers just to continue their business.
Which is why, our sector heavily relies on foreign workers employment and
depends dearly on how fast our applications can be processed and approved.
MAH, MAHO and MyBHA hope in light of
the above grounds, MOHR will review their plan and include the hotel sector in
their recipient list to expedite the application for employment of foreign
workers. The hotel sector was the first to be hit and the last to recover by
the pandemic. Our Associations appeal to the Ministry to help us in our
recovery. We welcome any opportunity to engage with the ministry to ensure the future
success of the hotel sector in Malaysia.
-END-