Article published today on page A12 The Borneo Post, Tuesday May 3, 2011
KOTA KINABALU: The Consumers Front of Sabah (Cfos) has refuted claim that locals are not interested to work in certain sectors such as sundry and textile outlets.
“They are many unemployed Malaysians, especially Sabahans. We do not need to import managers to run sundry and textile shops neither do we need a skilled bakery or pastry chef from abroad.
“There are a lot of unemployed management graduates and skilled catering staff trained locally. It’s only the matter of how much you are willing to pay them,” said Cfos president Nordin Thani when asked to comment on a recent claim by the Sabah Indian Muslim Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SIMCCI) yesterday.
SIMCCI has stated in a recent dialogue with the Immigration Department that the current 1,000 quota allocated to bring Indian nationals to cater for the Indian Muslim industries in Sabah was inadequate to meet the demand from the Muslim Indian industries in the state.
In this regard, Nordin reckoned that the SIMCCI should also hold dialogue and talks with the state government and other relevant state agencies, bodies and private institutions on how to help them solve part of the problems.
He said like many other established catering outlets, before employing full-time managers or chefs, a proper management trainee program must be done so that they could understand better what is needed and required by the company.
“Since the Indian Muslim industry turnover is about RM5 billion, perhaps it’s about time that they open a training centre or catering school to train the locals on Indian specialised cuisine served in all their outlets to meet the demand in the future.
“From my observation, in most of the 24-hour Indian restaurants, the chefs are locals and some even prepared the dishes according to the local taste.
“The famous ‘roti canai’ are also made by locals. If the locals are given the chance to prepare them, I am sure they are also able to do so,” Nordin said.
He also suggested that stateless children above the age of 18 years be employed to serve in the industry.
Even in most of the Chinese restaurants, majority of the ordinary workers are locals from here or from the peninsula and not from abroad to cater to the Chinese community, he added.
Nordin noted that in the west, work permits and visa to hire skilled workers, including specialised chefs and cooks, are allowed for a period of between three months to four years on condition that they must train the locals.
He said the renewable of permits and extensions of stay would be done on a case by case basis.
“We hope the same applies here too so that we will no longer depend on foreign workers.”
Above all, he said, what is important is the quality of food so that the consumers’ health and interests are protected.
According to him, it is about time that even cooked food must be labelled with the expiry date.
“We have no idea at all how long is the holding time for a curry dish and gravy can last? Perhaps the authority could educate consumers on these issues.
“Likewise, many fast-food outlets here still serve chips or French fries over their holding time period. The customers should change it when it’s cold and soggy.
“In the west, once the chips are over its holding time, they are immediately thrown into the bin,” Nordin added.
He also urged that the relevant authority take actions against employers for allowing untrained staff to serve and handle food.
He said only those who had attended training courses organised by the relevant authority should be allowed to do those tasks.
“There are many restaurants found using trained staff’s identity cards issued by the relevant authorities for the use of other employees.
“This is one of the contributing reasons for the decline in standards of customer service and cleanliness of the premises concerned,” said Nordin.
On the rating system for toilets and premises, he said an external evaluator should be appointed so that only those really deserves it will get it.
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