Despite more than 3,000 vacancies in the plantation sector, there are no takers, Malaysian Agricultural Plantation Association (MAPA) executive director Mohamad Audong disclosed today.He said MAPA had made provisions to give priority to retrenched local workers to fill the vacancies, but so far, there were no applicants.
Mohamad said Malaysians should change their mindset as working in plantations was a very lucrative alternative as the perks and salaries were also attractive.
The lowest category of worker, that is, general worker, was paid a clean monthly wage of RM600.
For skilled and semi-skilled workers, the pay would vary from RM2,000 to RM3,000 a month.
Besides this, the workers are provided with free housing, transportation, electricity and water.
They are also entitled to medical benefits, Socso coverage and Employees Provident Fund contributions.
Mohamad said that the 400 MAPA member estates were employing a total of 125,000 workers and almost half of them were foreigners.
“However, in line with government policy, we are reducing our dependence on foreigners,” he explained.
He hoped retrenched Malaysians would consider working in the plantations and help realise the government’s policy.
On the ongoing negotiations with the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW), he said MAPA was reviewing its collective agreement with the union for the benefit of members who were oil palm harvesters and mill workers.
The NUPW, the country’s oldest union, represents 40,000 local and foreign workers in the plantation sector.
Something2Share:
This is not surprising. For the past 30 years, plantations have been mainly dependent on foreign workers, majority of them are Indonesian workers, beside Thai and Bangladashi workers. The Malaysians especially the younger generation are not interested to work in plantations located far from towns.
Yes. Plantations provide free housing, electricity and water but there have been cases only the older men are working in the estates, whereas thier wives and children are working in factories in nearby towns.
How to change the mindset of the retrenched Malaysian workers remains a BIG question for Plantation companies, MAPA and NUPW to crack their heads.
1 comment:
You said," what goes up must come down". I agree and also disagree. Prices of food went up when the price of petrol went up. But when the price of petrol came down, the price of food and food stuff didn't come down. B4 , a plate of Been Fan (Chinese fast food) cost around RM3.00, now its cost RM4.00.A cup of coffee or tea cost 90sen b4, now 1.30. Bus fare from small KL to big KL, b4 RM11.00, now RM13.00. So it doesn't apply here as far as businessmen are concerned. So we better watch our pockets and wallets. Don't let our overindulgence blow a hole in our pockets. Spend wisely. Don't buy on impulse. A foolish spender and his money are soon parted.
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