Kuala Lumpur,
Today, 40 retrenched worker representative from 6 estates in Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan presented a Memorandum to SUHAKAM (Human Rights Commission) asking that the laws and regulation pertaining to compensation of retrenched estate workers be revamped so as to give plantation workers better protection.
Velayutham from Changkat Salak Estate, Sg Siput (U) Perak, told SUHAKAM Commissioner, Dato Siva Subramaniam, that he had worked 25 years as a rubber tapper in the same estate where his grandfather and father had also worked in, when he was sacked. Plantation Giant Guthrie had wanted to switch to Oil Palm cultivation and sacked 110 rubber tappers in 1999. Velayutham described the difficulty in finding another job - given his age (43 then), factories were not prepared to employ him. Even a chicken farm owner refused to employ Velayutham saying that migrant labour was cheaper and worked harder!
Alimuthu another worker leader from Ldg Kamiri, Sg Siput, also a third generation estate worker explained that his family did not have a house outside the estate when he was sacked in 1999. Upon retirement, his father, like his grandfather before him, had stayed on in the workers quarters occupied by their children on the estate. There was no where for him to go when he was given a paltry RM 9576 and asked to vacate his workers’ quarters. Why can’t the owner give us a few acres so that we could build our own houses he asked the SUHAKAM. Guthrie has more than 12,000 acres in Sg Siput alone. A scheme giving land titles to all of us in Kamiri and Changkat Salak would only take 4 acres he pointed out.
Comrade Sugumaran, the son of former Kamiri Estate workers, and the Coordinator of JSML-JERIT (Estate Workers’ Support Group) explained to Dato Siva Subramaniam, that one main cause of the problem is that the large plantation companies have failed to implement the Workers’ Own Housing Scheme that was launched in 1973 by Tun Abdul Razak, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia. 34 years have passed, yet the scheme has only been implemented in 21 out of the more than 1500 estates in the country charged Sdr Sugumaran. The NLFCS, a puny plantation company in comparison to Golden Hope, Guthrie and Sime Darby, accounts for the majority of the implemented schemes! Why haven’t Plantation Giants like Guthrie and Golden Hope whose profits are in the range of RM 400 million a year implemented this scheme, asked Sugu.
Muniandy of Kirby Estate, Negeri Sembilan lamented that their attempt to meet the Menteri Besar of Negri Sembilan have all been unfruitful. The workers at Kirby have approached their elected representatives several times but have been asked to wait.
Dr Jeyakumar, PSM Central Committee Member brought to the attention of the Commissioners, a press statement by Kedah State Human Resource Committee Chairman Datuk Osman Md Aji who had said that “It is only fair that estates which have reaped huge profits from the services rendered by their rubber tappers, provide them with low-cost housing when retrenching these workers .” (STAR 14/2/03). It is not that the government does not know of the issue, said Jeyakumar. All the Malaysia Plan documents have classified estate workers as among the poor and disadvantaged sectors in Malaysia. What the government has failed to do is to add specific provisions to the 1980 Regulations regarding Termination Benefits so as to provide adequate protection to retrenched estate workers. Relying on the “Corporate Responsibility” of Plantation Companies does not work stressed Jeyakumar.
S Munusamy, also a retrenched worker from Ldg Kamiri, described how they had approached the Perak State Government, asking that the government used the Land Acquisition Act to take over 4 acres of Guthrie land to be divided and given to the 27 families involved. However, although the Act clearly gives the State Government the power to do so, the State Government has refused to use its powers. Just do it in one or two estates, urged Munusamy, and the Plantation Companies will get the message and stop treating retrenched plantation workers so dismissively!
The retrenched estate workers have asked SUHAKAM to form a Commission to study the plight of retrenched estate workers and propose concrete amendments to Termination Benefits Regulation 1980 such that position of retrenched estate workers is protected. The workers have suggested that estates that have failed to implement the Housing Scheme proposed by Tun Razak in 1973 should be required by law to provide free terrace houses to all the workers who they are retrenching.
Dato Siva said that he understood the situation and that he would forward JSML’s recommendations to the SUHAKAM Legal Reform Committee. He asked that the JSML help out in the drafting of the proposed amendments.
In recent years, The Plantation Workers Support Committee (JSML) has called for the plantation capital to leave the estates and allow workers to take over the land to continues their lives. The Committee said that the Plantation Industry only breeds poverty and should be closed down if it cannot take care of the welfare of the workers..