Plantation workers’ union backs amendments

he National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) supports amendments to the Employment Act 1955 because it will help stop outsourcing of labour.

PETALING JAYA: The National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) is all for the amendments to the Employment Act because they say it will help outsourcing of labour.

NUPW’s executive secretary A Navamukundan said his union has been pushing for this for many many years.

“We are not blindly supporting the human resources ministry; we were actually pushing for this for many, many years. We don’t want to argue who is right or wrong, but we want to do what is right for workers,” Navamukundan told FMT in an interview.

Navamukundan said the amendment essentially provides for registration of contractors, something which the union has, in its representation to the government, called for for decades.

“This amendment actually provides for registration of contractors. We welcome this amendment. We’ve asked for the registration of contractors and more than that, we want them to be licensed. This is because we understand the abuse which is happening on the ground,” he said.

Navamukundan stressed that it was NUPW’s stand that where work is of a permanent nature, and not a one-time job, employer-employee relationship must be direct, that is, there must not be a contractor.

“We definitely don’t promote contractor for labour. Because through a contractor, the abuse is severe and serious,” he said.

He said registration of such contractors now would provide transparency to start reducing the abuse of labour through contractors.

“Will the transparency help? Yes, it will help. What harm can you cause to the worker by registering them (contractors)? You say it will institutionalise contractors, but you must realise, it’s already there! Even if it is not in the law, it is being practised.”

Labour shortage

Navamukundan said the “phenomenon” of contractors for labours “did not just happen yesterday”.

“Before independence, rubber was the dominant crop and second was oil palm. For a long time, in the plantation industry, the majority of the workers were employed directly by the employer. It was a direct relationship, there is no intermediary,” he said.

He added that when contractors come to estates, it was for one-time jobs such as replanting and the clearing of forests.

“But after the 60s, workers started to migrate to other industries. There was a labour shortage. Foreign workers were brought in and contractors were mobilised. Then the main industry became oil palm,” he said.

Navamukundan said today, the situation has become so serious that the bulk of the plantation workers are now engaged by contractors.

“This is where room for unfair labour practices can arise – contractors won’t pay wages, EPF, Socso; they set their own rules. This is because contractors for labour can circumvent the obligation of contract of service,” he said.

Citing the Selancar Empat “hell estate” which made headlines in the 80s, Navamukundan said that was a “classic” case of worker abuse.

“We need registration for contractors for the sake of transparency. Today, if you ask anybody how many contractors are there in any industry, nobody, including the department of statistics, has any record.”

Discretionary powers

He said there was one recent case where NUPW was alerted to an oil palm worker’s death, but the contract company denied having hired the man.

“It is a major problem when you can’t find out who is the contractor. The first answer the company gave us was ‘tak tau’ (we don’t know). It’s as if the person dropped from the sky and died. Nobody wanted to own up.

“Slowly, when my union officers continued to ask questions, everything came into place. Only then did the company say, ‘we would pay compensation’.”

Navamukundan said if the NUPW was not informed of the case, the person would be “as good as an unclaimed body”.

He said a provision currently exists under Section 2A of the Employment Act, where the ministry has discretionary powers to forbid employment through contract for a particular sector.

“But the process of documentation of contractors has always been a problem, so this order has hardly been invoked,” he said.

“This(amendment) is just a first step. We want the government to watch over the contractors.
“We hope that now we can ask, how many contractors are there in an estate and we can investigate abuses,” he said.

The revision of the Employment Act was passed in early October despite widespread protests. The proposed Bill now needs to be approved by the  senate and receive royal assent, before it becomes law.

Various union groups have called the amendments a “return to slavery”, “anti-worker” and “anti-union”. The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) had staged a picket outside Parliament and would be holding nationwide picket against the amendments today.

The human resources ministry, however, has defended the amendments, saying that it was not intended to promote or institutionalise contractors for labour. It said that it was to ensure workers’ rights were protected when all outsource agents were registered and monitored.