Trade unionists here have reacted with outrage to a survey of Japanese companies which reportedly described Malaysian workers as indisciplined and lacking in common sense.

Trades Union Congress deputy president Mohd Shafie Mammal vigorously denied the charges and in turn accused the Japanese companies of believing "profit is king", according to a report in the Malay Mail today.

"The audacity of it all, that these words are coming from the Japanese who have prospered and grown in Malaysia, due to the abilities of workers in their host country," Mohd Shafie said.

He also attacked the threat by some Japanese companies to relocate to China.

"This sort of attitude where profit is king is one of the reasons people believe that globalisation is a bad thing and corporations are only interested in the bottom line."

Mistranslation blamed

The row was sparked by a survey earlier this month by the local Japanese Chamber of Trade and Industry (JACTIM) which reportedly found that 91 percent of companies "are of the opinion that Malaysian workers lack morale, common sense and discipline".

JACTIM told the Malay Mail that it was all due to a mistranslation, and in fact the survey found that "some Malaysia workers lacked work motivation and discipline".

This did not appease the newspaper, which said in a commentary that the Japanese companies had added insult to injury by saying they preferred foreign to local labour and by criticising the Malaysian government's decision to restrict the hiring of foreign workers.

The paper noted that Japan ranked second only to the United States in direct foreign investment in Malaysia, with 1,400 Japanese firms here, and that the survey was based on responses from just 177 companies out of 337 polled.

Trade and Industry minister Rafidah Aziz told AFP that she had asked the Japanese embassy for further details and would not comment until she had seen their reply.