More than 100 employees of the Hotel Melia in Kuala Lumpur protested against the management's move to outsource its stewarding department and employ foreigners to replace locals.

The employees, who are members of the National Union of Hotel, Bar and Restaurant Workers, have been picketing in front of the hotel in Jalan Imbi for the past three days.

Union president Mohd Shairi Arifin said that effective Sept 1, the hotel had outsourced its stewarding department to a private contractor and transferred 12 of the staff to other departments.

The contractor had replaced the 12 with seven foreigners in the department which dealt with the backroom operations of the hotel like washing dishes and cutlery, he told Bernama today.

Mohd Shairi said this was a clear breach of national policy on the part of the hotel to give preference to foreigners when locals were willing to work.

He also took the hotel management to task for "retrenching three of the union's members, one of whom was the union' Selangor branch chairman Che Salim Abdul Hamid."

He believed that the retrenchment was due to the current picketing.

Meanwhile, hotel public relations manager Tarry J claimed that 90 percent of the staff who were transferred, were "happy with the move".

He explained that as some of the staff had been in the department for more than 10 years and just washed dishes and cutlery, the management felt that they needed to be upgraded.

"So, we have transferred them to the electrical department and front office to learn new skills to ensure their promotion and improve their earning capacity.

"It is cheaper for us to outsource a job to a contractor and we are not concerned who they employ, so long as the work is done," said Tarry.

Hotel’s move very ‘disturbing’

MTUC vice-president A Balasubramaniam said the hotel's move was a very "disturbing" trend as local employees who were willing to work were not allowed to do so.

He said the MTUC had been receiving numerous complaints from employees in other industries where such discrimination was practised against locals.

He called on the Labour Department to intensify its enforcement to ensure that employers did not unduly sack locals in favour of foreigners.

Balasubramaniam said it was a well-known fact that foreign workers were "cheaper and worked more than the stipulated working hours".

"These foreigners are the main cause of low salary and poor working conditions in most sectors, and this is why it is difficult to get locals to replace them," he said.

- Bernama