HUMAN RESOURCE MINISTER ASKS TRANSPORT INDUSTRY TO RELOOK HIRING, MANAGING DRIVERS

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 (Bernama) -- Human Resources Minister Dr S. Subramaniam Friday asked the transport industry to reconsider the system of hiring and managing drivers.

He said it had become a trend among employers to recruit foreign workers as a quick solution to their human resource management woes.

"Malaysian employers should stop this and relook how they are going to modernise their human resource management so that it is relevant to the current situation," he said in a statement.

Dr Subramaniam was commenting on the proposal Thursday by the country's biggest express bus company, Konsortium Transnational Bhd, to allow express bus companies to hire foreigners as drivers to overcome a shortage of express bus drivers and weed out the reckless ones in the existing pool.

He said the transport industry should take a hard look at some issues, such as proper education and training of the drivers, inculcating safety as the central core of the profession, adequate social benefits and a fair and just system of remuneration.

"Putting the entire blame of the inadequacies of the industry on the attitude of the drivers is unfair. Attitudes are creations of the workenvironment; poor environments create poor attitudes and vice versa.

"Foreign workers are creeping into virtually all industries in Malaysia and we have to be vigilant against opening a Pandora's box which might threaten the entire fabric of this nation," he said.