MALAYSIAN furniture manufacturers are seeing a boom in orders as a result of more people working from home amid a pandemic. They are also benefitting from the China-US trade war during the Donald Trump years.

The constantly changing foreign labour policies, however, have meant the sector is also experiencing a manpower shortage.

Malaysian Furniture Council (MFC) president Khoo Yeow Chong said even though the government encourages automation and better manufacturing capabilities, some processes still need to be made by hand and it takes many years to train workers for the job.

As a result, manufacturers are competing with one another for a small pool of skilled workers.

Khoo said many trained workers returned to their home countries to visit their family when the pandemic hit. They are now unable to return to Malaysia because of the closed borders.

Manufacturers are forced to poach workers by offering higher wages, he said.

A recent survey by the MFC found that 147 furniture factories are short of 20,000 workers, Khoo told The Malaysian Insight.

Employers have advertised extensively for local workers and have also asked the government to assist in their recruitment efforts but the response is disappointing.

“Foreign labourers only earn RM1,200 a month, they are the lowest paid. Local hires get paid RM1,400-1,500 a month, not including allowance, accommodation and food. With overtime, the local workers can easily earn more than RM2,000 a month,” he said.

Locals, however, rarely want to work long hours and some have even given up their jobs altogether because they wish to return to their hometowns, he said.

Foreign labourers are more willing to work extra hours because they are here for the sole purpose of making money.

“There have been suggestions to move our operations to Kelantan and Terengganu which the industry has considered taking up. We ultimately decided against it as it will exponentially increase logistic costs.”

Instead of allowing interstate travel to resume, Khoo said the government should think about legalising undocumented migrants to resolve the manpower shortage in various sectors.

“Amid the pandemic, businesses that wish to recruit foreign labourers have the added burden of paying for their health screening and quarantine, on top of the usual fees and expenses, here and in the worker’s home country that come with hiring a foreigner. All this adds up to tens of thousands of ringgit.

“The government should just legalise illegal migrants so that businesses have quicker access to more workers.”

Meanwhile, manufacturers are unable to accept many orders for fear they cannot fulfil the contracts, which would result in stiff penalties.

“The Immigration Department is currently holding a large number of illegal migrants whom it cannot deport at the moment because of the pandemic. Why not expedite the legalisation process for them then? That will not only save the government money that it has to spend on holding them, it will also resolve the labour shortage.

“We have worked hard to create new opportunities amid the US-China trade war and we have received many orders. It would be a shame to have to lose them now because of a manpower shortage.”

Too much work for locals

Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Furniture Association president Eric Lee said many furniture makers have stopped taking orders since January because of the manpower shortage.

“We are offering locals a RM1,500 monthly salary but there aren’t many takers due to the physical nature of the work. Why would anyone choose to do heavy work in a factory when they can do deliveries instead? You hear all the time about people earning RM3,000 a month just doing deliveries.”

The furniture manufacturers are not able to match such a salary, he added. 

Lee employs about 200 foreigners in his factory, where there is strict adherence to health and safety rules to prevent Covid-19 infection. An outbreak would be counter-productive, he said, especially when workers are scarce. 

“Many in the sector are prepared to pay more for workers because they are worried about not being able to complete their orders. But there are only so many workers we can get as foreigners are not allowed into the country at the moment. It’s a huge headache.”

Lee added that the industry is also grappling with the spike in the prices of raw materials, such as steel, fabric, sponge and rubber in the pandemic. – March 5, 2021.