PETALING JAYA: Far from the days when restaurants were desperately seeking foreign workers, things are better now with operators reporting enough hands at work.
Some restaurants are said to even be offering their extra workers to other operators in need of help.
A restaurant owner here said he was offered extra workers by a large banana leaf restaurant near his shop.
“I always see a big group of workers just standing idle there during non-peak hours. I thought this was a waste of resources. However, I turned down the offer as I already have enough workers,” he said.
Even the once crucial smart delivery robots or robot waiters are now left with nothing to do.
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Some operators have leased the robots to other types of establishments to be put to better use.
Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar managing director Burhan Mohamed said he lent several of his robot waiters to friends operating goldsmith and jewellery shops.
“The robots are being used to serve drinks to customers at the jewellery stores,” he added.
Burhan added that in any case, his customers prefer to be served by people instead of robots.
“They prefer to order from my waiters and sometimes ask for suggestions too,” he said, adding that he has enough workers at his nine eateries in the Klang Valley and Penang.
He added that the 20 robot waiters purchased at RM50,000 each had been gradually phased out at his restaurants since over a year ago with the arrival of more foreign workers.
Burhan said although he prefers giving employment opportunities to Malaysians, there were no takers even with reasonable benefits.
“We have offered locals jobs as waiters with salaries of up to RM2,000, depending on their experience. Free lodging and meals are also provided, yet they do not appear to be interested,” he said.
P. Sangapillai, owner of the popular Sri Grand City Restaurant in Section 11 here, said he has done away with the use of robot waiters as he has enough foreign workers.
He said the robots were useful to a certain extent but he found they also hindered smooth operations at the restaurant.
“Firstly, we need to create a pathway for the robots to move about with ease. This would mean lowering the seating capacity as we have to rearrange our tables.
“The robots are also slow and have a tendency to break down every now and then.
“We gave up on the robots after manpower was restored,” said Sangapillai, who leased several of the robots at about RM1,500 per month.
He said he was relieved after the government allowed more foreign workers to return to Malaysia, enabling him to resume his business smoothly.
Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners Association president Datuk J. Govindasamy@Suresh said there are Indian restaurants which are still in need of workers, adding that many will have to scale down operations if more foreign workers are not approved.
He urged the authorities to act on food stalls that employ illegal foreign workers.
“These stalls should employ Malaysians but instead they pinch workers from restaurants by offering higher wages and we restaurant operators are on the losing end,” he said.
