Worker shortage suffocating eateries

Depleting hands: Workers serving customers at a restaurant in Petaling Jaya. Restaurant owners are being put under pressure by conditions set by authorities for hiring foreigners.

MELAKA: Some 2,000 Chinese coffee shops and 400 Indian-Muslim and banana leaf restaurants ceased operations last year, says a joint committee representing the owners.

The associations, the Malaysia-Singapore Coffee Shop Proprietors General Association (MSCP), Malay­sian Indian Restaurant Owners Association (Primas) and Malaysian Indian-Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma), have also sent a joint memorandum to the Govern­ment urging it to look into their predicament immediately.