Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
KUALA
LUMPUR: Have the lives of plantation workers improved over the years?
<P>No,
says a man who has dedicated 25 years of his life helping plantation workers and
the downtrodden.</P><P>Yes, says the National Union of Plantation Workers.</P><P>N.V.
Subbarow says plantation workers earn less than road sweepers.</P><P>He said their
wages had increased by just RM100 over the past 20 years and by RM250 in the past
50.</P><P>Subbarow, the Consumers Association of Penang’s education officer,
said an estate worker’s minimum wage of RM350 per month was insufficient
to meet rising costs of household items.</P><P>"What they need is to earn
at least RM650 a month to lead a decent life."</P><P>Female workers were
working two shifts per day with little rest in between to earn extra income, he
added.</P><P>"They work from 7am to 2pm, then take an hour’s rest. They
start again from 3pm to 11pm, rest for a few hours and then get up for work again."</P><P>The
common jobs that female workers do include spraying pesticides, clearing weeds
and cleaning the ground.</P><P>Subbarow said there had been an increase in foreign
workers in plantations, especially in oil palm estates.</P><P>The workers who
came from Indonesia and Bangladesh worked 12 hours per day, seven days per week
compared with the locals who worked eight hours per day, six days a week, he claimed.</P><P>There
was also a trend where male youths were not following their parents’ footsteps
in becoming plantation workers.</P><P>They preferred to go for higher-paying jobs,
including as construction workers in Singapore.</P><P>Subbarow said the lot of
plantation workers should be improved in view of the fact that the oil palm and
rubber sectors were money-makers for the nation.</P><P>The National Union of Plantation
Workers, however, felt that there had been improvements, especially as wages had
increased.</P><P>The wages for the lowest paid estate workers rose by RM2.60 per
day in the 1960s to its current RM19 per day, said NUPW executive secretary A.
Navamukundan.</P><P>He claimed that it was possible for an oil palm harvester
to earn between RM1,000 and RM1,500 per month if he worked hard.</P><P>The more
fruits he cut, the higher the income.</P><P><I>Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/National/20070502083306/Article</I>
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