Lawmaker and former MTR engineer Gary Zhang on Thursday raised concerns over the MTR's plan to import non-local workers, saying those working in key roles should be local staff.

The railway operator said a day ago that it is suffering from a serious shortage in manpower – including maintenance staff – and that it’s considering bringing in outside workers.

Zhang said while non-local staff can help with railway construction projects, they should be kept away from frontline operations.

"For frontline repairs and operations, especially those involving emergency repairs, accuracy in communication is very important... For railways, the tolerance of error is very low. There may be serious consequences if things go wrong. Language is a huge barrier," he told an RTHK programme.

Lam Wai-keung, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Railway Trade, also questioned if non-local workers are a good fit.

"Every worker has to shoulder a big responsibility. For example, if a worker forgot to put in a screw and that resulted in an accident, there could be legal consequences," he told the same programme.

"If you recruit non-local workers, what are their responsibilities? Also, are they qualified and experienced to handle what we are doing now?"

Lam urged the MTR to reform its training system and bump up salaries in order to attract more local young people to join the industry.