Local cooks only ruling not absolute, HR Minister says amidst backlash

KUALA LUMPUR: Policies to restrict foreign workers as cooks in local restaurants, especially laws stating only Malaysians can cook in restaurants will not be absolute as foreigners will be employed.
Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran (pix) said that he wanted to give priority to local workers to get jobs but faced objections from restaurant owners who said that they could not get enough local workers on time.
"I suggested we focus on giving locals the jobs, but we had a lot of objections from restaurant operators who said this policy shift does not give them time to overcome the lack of workers," he said.
He said that the government was looking to see an outcome that will be a "win-win situation for all".
"No blanket policy will be made on this. We will give opportunity for all restaurants to bring in foreign workers or cooks to work here," he said in reply to a question by Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah (PH-Port Dickson) in Parliament on Thursday (July 26).
"The Policy has not changed because there is a lack of local manpower who are interested to work as cooks," he said.
He however said that the dependence on foreign workers has to stop and new policies were needed to curb this issue.
The Cabinet recently set up a committee between my ministry and the Home Ministry, where we will work on a new policy in hiring foreign workers.
"Among the issues we will study are the existing haphazard policies," he said.
On June 22, Kulasegaran said all restaurants serving Malaysian food could only hire locals as cooks from Jan 1 next year, resulting in some brickbats hurled at him on social media.
Later, he clarified that the local cooks requirement was only applicable to "ordinary local food" outlets and not to foreign cuisine restaurants, high-end restaurants and five-star hotels, which require specialised cooks.