KUALA LUMPUR: Irate estate workers have taken the National Union of Plantation workers to task over a resolution at its recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) allowing for a 14% increase in the salary of the secretary general.
Claiming ‘malpractice’, the members said they were not informed of the AGM and were shocked to read about G Sankaran’s salary hike.
“How can they approve a big increase like this for Sankaran when the workers are still struggling with RM15 a day on daily wages.
“The union has been around since 1954 and we are still living hand to mouth,” said a frustrated worker who refered to himself as a ‘paying member’ of the union.
Declining to be named he said, Sankaran’s new salary was now RM7,100 which was RM274 per day and this did not inlcude the RM0.80 sen per kilometre travel allowance and other ‘perks’ that ‘he had tailored’ for himself since he took over 18 years ago.
“The AGM was just a ‘drama’ staged by Sankaran and his cronies… NUPW has been ripping off the workers for years.
“The NUPW constitution states the secretary general must be a plantation worker …we know Sankaran is not and that he pays a source in an estate to get his docket done so that he can stay in power.
“He is very powerful. No one dares question him, even the chairman and the treasurer-general. At the AGM, they did not even read treasurer Samsudin Samad’s financial report. But it was approved and passed.”
He said there were ‘too many’ ambiguities with the current financial report and in NUPW’s investment and management portfolios.
Among them were Sankaran’s stature as secretary general of NUPW bearing in mind that he is 60 years old. According to him the constitution only allows for members to hold a post.
“Most plantations retire you at 55, so how come he’s still there?”
The other is the Great Eastern Group Insurance scheme which NUPW invited members to take up.
Some 5,000 members have apparently joined the scheme.
“The insurance company gives NUPW a 2% commission for getting its members to sign up for the policy. If a member signs up, he pays RM20 a month. Great Eastern pays NUPW about RM2,000 a month in commissions but it’s not reflected in the accounts,” he said.
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