THE furniture industry in Johor has once again come to a standstill as the state remains in Phase One of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
Federation of Johor Furniture Manufacturers and Traders Associations president Steve Ong Yeou Huan said the industry was losing hundreds of millions of ringgit since the tightened restrictions came into force in June. In Muar alone, he said about 90% of furniture firms manufactured products for export, shipping out an average of 8,000 storage containers each month.
“In just the two first weeks of the NRP, the industry there suffered losses of at least RM350mil. “The situation is expected to continue to worsen if the furniture industry is still considered non-essential and not allowed to operate."
“During the first two movement control orders last year, our industry suffered major losses as we were able to operate only after the government allowed the majority of industries to reopen during the recovery MCO. We hope the government will consider allowing our foreign workers to return to work while administrative staff continue working from home, to keep the industry moving. “The work carried out by foreign workers simply cannot be done at home as they have to operate heavy machinery,” Ong told StarMetro.
He noted that since the Covid-19 pandemic started last year, the demand for furniture had almost doubled. This showed that the products were considered essential in the new normal, with people spending more time at home, he said.
“The whole industry was caught off-guard by the NRP.
“Not only were there a lot of goods left uncompleted, but there was not enough time to ship the finished products overseas before we were ordered to cease operations.
“Vietnam and Indonesia are serving up massive competition for us as the factories there are allowed to keep running during the lockdowns there, while companies here are faced with cancelled orders. “This is damaging to our industry and Malaysia’s exports in the long term,” he stressed.
Ong said this affected the chain of industries too, as furniture production involved raw materials such as wood, plastics, metal, cotton and paint. He highlighted a recent incident where authorities uploaded photos online following their visit to a workers’ dormitory at a furniture factory in Muar, causing the public to misunderstand and chide the industry for breaching government directives.
He clarified that the compounds issued by the authorities were for the breach of standard operating procedure (SOP) at the workers’ dormitory and not the factory, as the industry had not been operating for more than a month now.
“Only certain factories were allowed to process the shipment of previously completed products for the overseas market upon receiving the green light from the National Security Council. In compliance with government directives, our foreign workers’ movements were limited to the compound of their dormitories. Employers, who have remained at home during this time, found it difficult to monitor the SOP and hygiene there,” he elaborated.
On top of having zero income and losing customers, the federation’s members had to bear the burden of paying their workers’ wages and rent, besides worrying about getting compounded by the authorities, he added.
Among Ong’s suggestions is for the government to allow the furniture industry to resume operations under stricter SOP, including letting factories hire People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) personnel at their own expense to monitor the industrial areas and dormitories.
He said some 95% of the factories were located in industrial zones where workers usually took turns to work in two eight-hour shifts. In addition, they usually work a two-hour overtime shift, so foreign workers will not have much time to socialise outside the factories.
“We think operating under stricter SOP is more viable in the long run as the government cannot keep forking out financial assistance to help businesses.
“This prolonged standstill will be bad for the industry and the country’s economy as a whole,” added Ong.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2021/07/16/furniture-makers-desperate-to-reopen
