I’m sure readers are familiar with the recent spat between Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok and PSM over the salary of estate workers. It was started by Dompok who said that plantation workers like rubber tappers and oil palm harvesters earn more than the monthly poverty level amount, even quoting RM1700 per month for one category of workers. This was disputed by the Parti Sosialis Malaysia and JERIT. Dompok is even threatening to sue the challengers. But we need to remember that poverty line is for family income, not individual (Dompok compared wrongly in the first place because he took a person’s salary and compared with family poverty income level). This was even pointed out by the Deputy Minister after MK published pay slips of two people:

Malaysiakini had published two pay slips of plantation workers which showed that they were earning below the poverty line which is set at RM720 a month.

Hamzah, upset over statements from representatives of the plantation workers, asked for the news report to be retracted.

He claimed that this had to be done ‘as its objective was to ruin the dignity of the government and his ministry in particular’.

Hamzah (right) said a probe was done on the persons of whose pay slips were published and it was discovered that they were women who were employed as common workers at an oil palm plantation in Sungai Siput. They earned RM21.30 per day.

“Usually, common workers are women who are involved in fertilising and removing weeds (in the plantations). Mostly, they are wives of workers employed for other duties.

“Generally, the accumulated salary of both husband and wife is more than RM1,200 a month, which is above the poverty line,” said Hamzah.

According to him, oil palm fruit harvesters earn from RM26 to RM60 a day, depending on their productivity.

The wages, he said, were based on the ‘productivity-linked wage system’ (PLWS) which was adopted in the collective agreement between the Malayan Agricultural Producers Association (Mapa) and the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW).

“At the level of crude palm oil being priced at RM1,200 per tonne, when a harvester produces 38 tonnes a month, he will get RM844.

“At the level of crude palm oil being priced at RM2,000 per tonne, the harvester’s income is RM1,292.16 a month,” said Hamzah.

Therefore, that it was not ‘an impossible task and it is not a lie’ to say that an oil palm plantation worker could earn up to RM1,700 a month. [ah, not impossible, theoretically. why not produce payslips of workers (say 100 workers) who actually got such salaries? Its not that difficult, is it?]

“Especially workers who are productive and are able to produce three tonne bunches of oil palm fruits a day or 78 tonne of bunches of oil palm fruits a month,” said Hamzah.

Today, PSM provided some info and proof by showing salary slip of workers. Its shocking to say the least! Agreed, its just few workers, so may not really represent the whole sector. But I think HR Ministry, NUPW etc have done a survey on this before. What does it say? I also remember reading that many of the plantation workers are actually foreigners since locals shun these jobs.

The salary may be tied to productivity. Maybe it was low season so not much work or product. In the example below, the guy earns less than RM200 per month and has 8 kids. Not a good example for PSM.  While Dompok is most likely wrong in his assessment, the workers also need to play a part and not make their own lives more difficult. If  8 kids, RM10,000 also not enough in this age!

Many plantation workers in Perak, including foreigners, are being exploited and fleeced by estate managements who charge them exorbitant amounts for electricity and water supply.
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) state coordinator M Sugumaran told Malaysiakini today that estates are charged industrial rates for both the supply of water and electricity.

According to him, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) bills the estates on a monthly basis whereas the Perak Water Board (LAP) serves them with a bimonthly bill.

Sugumaran said the management could afford to charge domestic rates as the workers are occupying housing areas inside the estate but a recent survey painted a grim picture.

The survey of the working conditions of plantation workers in about 50 estates revealed that they are not only paid low wages but are also charged high electricity and water rates.

“The average gross daily salary for a plantation worker is RM21.10, inclusive of other benefits and allowances. The management deducts RM50 per person per month for utilities.

“There are about five to six foreign workers sharing a room and RM50 is deducted as electricity charges in their salary slips,” a shocked Sugumaran said.

“You mean to say that the electricity charge for a room in an estate comes to about RM300 monthly?” he asked.

Worker’s monthly salary of RM145

Earlier at a press conference, Sugumaran brought 15 plantation workers from Sungai Siput and Bagan Serai and displayed their monthly pay slips to disprove a claim made recently.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok (left) had stated in Parliament that rubber tappers earn RM870 monthly while plantation workers earn RM1,700.

Sugumaran welcomed the threat by Dompok to sue PSM for refuting his claims and calling him a liar as PSM have documentary evidence to prove the minister wrong.

“Dompok, instead of making statements in the comfort of Parliament, should come down and see the harsh realities of the sufferings of the plantation workers,” said Sugumaran.

Salleh Saari, 44, a plantation worker with eight children from Ladang Gedong in Bagan Serai, provided the press copies of his September and October 2009 salary slips.

His September 2009 salary slip showed that his net take home pay was a mere RM145.94. His gross earning was RM543.36 while his total deductions came to RM397.42.

Deductions were for his two-room estate home, water bill amounting to RM23.40 and electricity at RM85.27.

For October 2009, Salleh had to pay RM35 for water charges and RM93 for electricity usage. “Even a bungalow utilities charges would not be as high as mine,” said Salleh.

His gross October salary was RM381 and his net income after deductions showed RM181.

“How am I to feed my family of eight children? ” he asked, bursting into tears.

All this is going to be rendered academic, because we all know the poverty line is a joke. Good thing government is updating the line to something more sane. I think in rural area it should RM1000 to RM1500 per family of four.

Leaving that issue aside, this is what Sugumaran, coordinator for Plantation Workers Support Group said:

Moreover, he said that not even five percent of the housing policy introduced by former premier Abdul Razak Hussein had been implemented in the plantations.

“Even the clinics are not manned by qualified doctors… the clinics are run by dressers. And almost all Tamil-medium schools are only partially aided because the government does not have the will to convert the schools into fully aided schools,” said Sugumaran.

Also responding to the recent appeal by Human Resource Minister S Subramaniam to the Malaysian Agricultural Producers Association (Mapa) to create housing funds for estate workers, Sugumaran said:

“The problems of the estate workers can be solved if the employers and the government implement the existing policies.

“Since the Second Malaysia Plan, employers have been asked to implement housing schemes when the plantation sector was to be developed but most employers have not implement the policy. Until now fewer than 59 plantations have implemented the policy,” he said.

“It is clear here that employers are not committed to the implementation of housing schemes for their own workers. Then what is the use of the minister asking Mapa to invest these funds?

“Mapa will not execute it. Is it not better for plantation workers that a housing policy be enacted as law that requires companies to implement the practice?” Sugumaran suggested.

Why would employers build housing schemes when its more lucrative to redevelop land into housing schemes which can generate billions of ringgits? There’s no law, just policy.