The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) is very sceptical of claims by the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) and the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) that 84 percent of its members are facing a labour shortage.

The freeze has only been in effect for two months. It takes at least three months to source, bring in and process and obtain approval for foreign workers into the country.

So how can it be that barely two months after the freeze, 84 percent of its members have a labour shortage? The freeze does not apply retrospectively. Please note the freeze does not reduce foreign workers, it only maintains the current level and does not allow new foreign workers.

So the freeze cannot cause companies to be unable to fulfill orders unless there is an exodus of foreign workers. The 24 percent of businesses that are facing penalties for failure to meet order datelines cannot be due to the freeze.

Sixty perentmay be running below capacity but these are not necessarily due to shortage of workers, it may be market conditions and sales performance, for example Proton is running at only 30 percent of its production capacity.

Manpower planning and investment decisions to ramp up production cannot be done in a matter of two months. If 49 percent are unable to fulfill orders, it shows that they have never been prudent and have been confident that the government will continue to allow more and more foreign workers, and thus they prematurely commit to expand production lines and take new orders.

This flies in the face of the government’s stated policy of reducing reliance on foreign workers.

So please stop the fear-mongering, stop trying to delay the review of minimum wage review and give local workers a chance. Employers claim that they cannot afford the increased minimum wage to RM1,000 due to weak market conditions, yet they now claim that market condition is so strong that they face a huge labour shortage. It is just not credible.

It is nothing than fear-mongering to hoodwink the government to lift the freeze.

ANDREW LO is secretary, MTUC, Sarawak division.