THE Selayang wholesale market is facing a serious shortage of labour as stall owners have been barred from hiring foreign workers in the wake of the enhanced movement control order (EMCO).
Wages of up to RM100 a day, dangled by desperate stall owners, have appealed to some from among the growing pool of jobless Malaysians but they are not up to the job, physically.
Many of these fresh hands quit after just a couple of days or within hours because they find the manual labour too tough and the working conditions too unpleasant.
According to a report in China Press yesterday, the wholesale market has 448 stalls – 216 selling greens, 168 for seafood and 64 selling fruits – and employed around 5,000 foreign workers, including refugees, before the EMCO.
However, only about 60 documented foreign workers are currently allowed to work there. The report said in the last two weeks, a steady stream of locals took up jobs at the market, but the turnover rate was very high, and few could last the week.
Some gave up after barely three hours on the job.
Kuala Lumpur Hoi Seong Fish Wholesalers Association president Sing Kian Hock said because of the high turnover, its members had been hiring workers practically every day since the EMCO.
The fresh hands were not able to handle the volume of work, he said.
Sing disclosed that he himself has hired a total of 40 locals but only five are still around at the last count.
He said it is not easy for locals who are not used to heavy labour to push a cart loaded with tens of kilos of goods to the carpark nearby a few dozens times a day. “We have to spend about RM300 on each worker for the Covid-19 test. We didn’t expect them to quit so soon,” he said, adding that going by the turnover rate, it would take at least three months to get enough workers.
