KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Resources Ministry has tasked the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis (ILMIA) to study the issue of eateries hiring foreigners as cooks, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Deputy Minister Datuk Mahfuz Omar said the study would take into consideration the proposal of replacing foreign cooks and assistant cooks with Malaysian workers.
He said the study would focus on cooks and the mamak restaurants workers hired under the food and beverages sub-sector.
“The government is awaiting the (result of the) study and we stress that the issue of cooks has nothing to do with race.
“Final decision on the hiring of foreign cooks will be known in October,” he said in reply to a question by Datuk Seri M. Saravanan (BN-Tapah) in regards to guidelines on hiring of cooks for restaurants in Malaysia.
In replying to Saravanan’s supplementary question on industrial training for problematic students (pelajar tercicir), Mahfuz said the government would continue with such training programmes in culinary and cooking.
Mahfuz said local restaurants could also take in the trainees to reduce reliance on foreign cooks.