FINAL CUT?
INDIAN barber shops say they are staring at a business apocalypse. Consumers may have reason to be alarmed.
INDIAN barber shops, with their multicoloured barber’s poles outside beckoning people to come in and sit on the leather chairs for a shave and a haircut, have been around in Malaysia for more than 100 years.
Their existence, however, is under threat. The shops, which have for many years relied on Indian nationals to tend to customers, are now not allowed to hire foreign workers.
This, coupled with the reluctance of locals to become barbers, has left the Malaysian Indian Hair Dressing Salon Owners Association (Mindas) with a less than optimistic view of the future of the industry.
Mindas has 718 members and 2,100 registered barber shops nationwide.
Mindas treasurer Jeyakumar Manokaran said although it supported the government’s policy on reducing the hiring of foreign workers in all sectors to provide employment opportunities to locals, the traditional barber industry had been severely affected by the move.
He said new approvals to hire foreign workers for all service sub-sectors had been discontinued since 2009.
“Over the last 10 years, each barber shop had a quota for foreign workers. How it works is that when one worker returns to his home country, we are allowed to replace him with a new one.
“That’s how we’ve managed to survive, even though most barber shops are on the verge of shutting down. But when the new policy came in, we were not allowed to replace our workers. This has affected the industry.”
On Aug 8, the Home Ministry announced that the government would discontinue the hiring of foreign workers for service sub-sectors comprising laundry, textile, hairdressing and goldsmith businesses in stages, beginning this year until 2021.
Jeyakumar said the move was the final nail in the coffin, as the number of barber shops had been on a steady decline.
He said since 2016, the number of barber shops registered with Mindas had declined by 40 per cent after the freeze was implemented in 2009.
He said Mindas’ members had explored all avenues to hire locals and rejected the notion that they were reluctant to hire Malaysians.
“The locals aren’t interested and even if they were, it would drive up operational costs on our side.
“We sought the help of the Labour Department and JobsMalaysia to seek out locals, but did not receive any application.”
Jeyakumar said many of its members had since stopped their businesses.
He hoped that the government would allow the hairdressing sub-sector to hire foreign workers to ease the burden of high operational costs.
Jeyakumar took aim at barber shops that hired illegal foreign workers, which he claimed had become a trend over the years.
“The number of barber shops that hire legal foreign workers has been on a decline.
“Based on our observation, 75 per cent of barber shops use either illegal foreign workers, or workers who hold estate work permits.
“We hope the government will take action. We are ready to assist them as we have the data on shops that hire illegal foreign workers.”
He is asking the government to allow 2,000 foreign workers to be used by members of Mindas.
“This will give our members some breathing room in today’s challenging business environment.
“We support the policy to take action against barber shops that hire illegal foreign workers.
“What we are stressing here is to allow our members, who are operating legally, to be given the opportunity to run their
We sought the help of the Labour Department and JobsMalaysia to seek out locals, but did not receive any application. Jeyakumar Manokaran Malaysian Indian Hair Dressing Salon Owners Association treasurer
operations.
“This is a vital source of income. What should we do if we continue to face a shortage of labour?” he said, adding that Mindas would submit a memorandum to Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on the matter.
Jeyakumar cautioned that the policy would have a huge impact on the Bottom 40 group as barber shops would be forced to increase their prices.
“We have been part of the nation’s landscape for more than 100 years. We have contributed to the community by providing efficient and quality service at a reasonable price, particularly for the B40 group.
“A freeze on the use of foreign workers can result in an increase of fees of between RM30 and RM45.”