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JERIT will not retract statement, minister must apologise
JERIT (Oppressed People's Network) Press Statement - November 24, 2009
With reference to the statement "Dompok didn't lie about the workers' wages" (Malaysiakini, 23 Nov 2009), JERIT would like to refute the statement by the Deputy Minister Yb Hamzah Zainuddin. We stand by our initial statement that the Minister's statement is indeed misleading and the current clarification done by the Deputy Minister does not help either.
Why do we say the minister is misleading is because, the question in the parliament was how many Malaysians are dependent on the plantation industry and how much are they earning. The Minister's answer was 600,000 plus workers are dependent on the plantation industry and a tapper earns around RM 870 and a harvester earns around 1700. So the plantation worker's income is more than the rural poverty line which is RM 720 (Hansard Oct 19, 2009).. This is definitely misleading because, rubber estates have reduced and definitely a rubber tapper does not earn RM 870. Secondly harvesters earning up to 1700 are mainly subcontractors. Harvesting workers in plantation industry earn around RM 13.70 per day plus other allowances such as world market price, height of tree, a harvesting worker earns only around RM 500-RM 600.
In many estates, local workers being harvesters are very few. Mainly this job is being contracted out with higher payment to subcontractors and foreign workers who work 12 hours a day and may earn up to the wage the minister is saying. Majority of the workers in the estate are common workers, who also earn around RM 400-500. They are not wives of harvesters, they are at many times the sole workers in the estates because the main jobs have been subcontracted and given to foreign workers. If majority of the estate workers are earning in the income bracket of RM 400-RM 600, how can the minister say that the estate workers' income is above the rural poverty line RM 720. Isn't the minister misleading the parliament and the people?
Furthermore by denying the fact that the plantation workers are poor and below the poverty line, the minister is doing a big disservice to the plantation community as they will lose out on the help and aid given by other government agencies for communities below the poverty line.
The talk by the Deputy Minister that if 78 tonnes are harvested in a month, a salary of 1700 is achievable may be true. But that also means working more than 12 hours a day that is from morning 6pm to evening 7-8 pm everyday in the month and harvesting about 200 fruits. Not only harvesting, a workers is supposed to pick up the dropped fruits, clear the dried branches off and ensure the tree area is clean. Doing all this and harvesting 3 tonnes a day is not an easy job and is not achievable in normal circumstances. Talk to a harvester and we would know how tough the job is. So how is a normal worker able to work like this? Does the deputy minister think being a harvester is like sitting in an air-cond office and shaking legs? This is tough work and for workers to work long hours every day he must be a machine. Does the deputy minister think the workers are machines?
If the deputy minister thinks all this is possible, then Plantation Workers Support Committee (JSML), JERIT would like to invite the deputy minister to became an oil palm harvester just for a month and see if he can earn RM 1700. If he can achieve 78 tonnes a month then only we will agree with him.
Until then JSML, JERIT remains with our stand that the Minister needs to retract his statement and apologise for misleading the parliament and the Malaysian people. With this statement we attach the detailed pay slip of a palm oil harvester and common worker for 2 months for the understanding of how the salary of a worker is calculated.
For more inquiries, please contact Kohila on 019-2275982.
Statement released by Kohila
JERIT Secretariat
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