| Estate Workers 01 |
| Friday March 23 A mockery - monthly pay deal for estate workers P Ramasamy 2:31pm, Fri: The anxiously awaited introduction of monthly wage for estate workers seems to offer little material incentives for their advancement. The offer of RM325 as a monthly wage for oil palm harvesters and mill workers as provided for in the recent collective agreement between the Malaysian Agriculture Producers Association (Mapa) and the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) seems to make mockery of the contribution of thousands of plantation workers in the country. According to some management personnel of the plantation industry, workers have in fact gained very little or nothing by the recent introduction. In fact, oil palm harvesters and mill workers were already earning more than this before the introduction of the scheme. Under the present price zone of RM800-900 in the oil palm industry, harvesters will be getting about RM20 per day which includes productivity bonus of RM3 and price bonus of RM1 per day. So at the end of month, harvesters will be receiving an average salary of about RM520 per month. In this respect, the monthly wage of RM325 is not applicable to an average oil palm harvester under the present price zone. If the price of oil palm doubles, harvesters will tend to get a monthly salary of slightly more than RM1,000. Similarly, according to some mill managers, the average wage of a ordinary mill worker is about RM17.50 with inclusion of some incentives like the harvesters. On a monthly basis, a mill workers will obtain a wage of about RM450, far above the monthly wage that has been stipulated. Of course, not all mill workers are covered under this monthly wage scheme, it merely meant for mill workers in the lower category. Mill workers in the high grades already are on monthly wage under a different scheme enjoyed over the years. Better wages Since oil palm harvesters and mill workers are already receiving better wages than the present one stipulated, it makes no sense why employers and the union should agree to this particular scheme. It appears that this present scheme seems more geared to cover workers in the above two categories that earn a salary less than RM325. If this is the case, then the management will merely upgrade their salary to this particular mark. But then there is catch in the collective agreement which states that the monthly wage of RM325 will only be paid to those “who turn up for work on all days on which work is offered by management and who satisfactorily complete the full duties allotted.” There are only rare instances in which harvesters and mill workers will earn below the monthly wage mark and still be qualified to obtain this wage. Only those who do not come to work on medical grounds will be entitled to the monthly wage on the grounds that their total salary will be below RM325. But there is no way for wages for harvesters and mill workers to fall below this mark unless of course they do not fulfill the obligations of management by not turning up for work as required. Under this circumstances, the management will not pay them the monthly wage, but they will get the sack. For the present monthly wage to make sense, the price of oil palm must really fall below the RM400 tonne mark. Then it is possible for this particular scheme to come to the rescue of workers since the their total earning might fall below the RM325 mark. But if the oil palm price drops to this level, there is a real possibility that the oil palm industry as whole might not be viable enough economically to be continued in the country. So in this respect, there is no use for the monthly wage scheme. Issue sidetracked It is rather strange, why in the first instance, that the union that supposedly represents plantation workers would agree to this meaningless scheme. Beyond this, why the union did not push this scheme to cover general workers and rubber tappers is not very clear. Since these two categories of works are the most lowly paid in the plantation industry, the introduction of monthly wage could have stabilised their income to a limited extent. However, beyond this, the present monthly wage system supposedly prepared by some experts in Universiti Malaya is of no use to thousands of plantation workers in the country. Sad to say, it makes a mockery of the sacrifice and hard work put in by plantation workers. Some experts on plantations are of the opinion that present publicity given to the monthly wage issue has sidetracked the discussion and resolution of other important aspects that are more meaningful for the improvement of lives of plantation workers. For instance, the improvement of Tamil schools, the necessity of the government to take over Tamil schools situated in private lands, providing transport facilities for school children, pushing for the implementation of the house ownership scheme, insisting on substantial material improvement for workers and others have not been adequately addressed by the relevant agencies. It looks as though that the mere symbolism associated with the introduction of monthly wage has provided a pyrrhic victory to parties such as the MIC, the NUPW and the government. But then, it will realised sooner than later, the concept of monthly wage that has been introduced will have no impact on improving the material conditions of the working class in plantations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P RAMASAMY is a professor of political economy at the Political Science Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and has academic interests in Malaysian politics and labour. He has written quite extensively and is currently focusing on conflict management in Sri Lanka. |