KOTA KINABALU:
Tyre dealers in the State have appealed to the State Government to help resolve the acute manpower shortage faced by the industry which is shunned by the locals due to the laborious nature of the work. They made the appeal during a recent dialogue held here with the Sabah Foreign Workers Employment Agents Association (PAPPAS). The tyre dealers especially hoped the State Government could reinstate the quota allowing them to engage foreign workers legally, so as to address the problem which they claimed was getting worse. “No doubt there are still a small number of locals who are willing to take up the job but they normally won’t stay long, thus causing a high turnover of workers in our industry and this is affecting us badly,” said Candy Wong, the President of the Sabah West Coast, Kudat, and Interior Residencies Tyre Dealers’ Association. She noted that prior to this tyre dealers in the State were given a quota by the relevant authorities to engage foreign workers, but it has been abolished since last December. Despite ongoing efforts by the relevant authorities to act against illegal foreign workers, she said there were still many who managed to find ways to work illegally in the various industries. Can thus said that the. State Government should seriously relook into the current workforce situation in the State and come up with a more pragmatic approach to effectively resolve the issue, including legalising some of these illegal foreign workers. This would thus help solve the issue of illegal foreign workers and prevent losses of revenues to the State Government in terms of foreign workers levy. Meanwhile, PAPPAS promised to convey the tyre dealers’ plight to the relevant authorities, with the hope of finding a “win-win solution” for both the tyre dealers and the State Government.
