PARLIAMENT | Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin has dismissed forced labour allegations as part of a campaign to discredit the Malaysian palm oil industry.
She acknowledged the issue of dismal workers housing but said this was mainly faced by “disorganised” smallholders.
The ministry was now developing a “plantation housing policy” to enforce minimum standards, she announced.
In her 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) wrapping up speech this evening, Zuraida disputed claims that the Malaysian palm oil industry was rife with labour violations.
“We see this as something that appears to be intentionally raised simply due to market competition. It is not the truth,” she said.
Asked by Wong Chen (Pakatan Harapan-Subang) if the ministry plans to incentivise palm oil corporations to improve workers’ living quarters, Zuraida said “big players” were not the source of the problem.
“So probably, maybe we are talking about the smallholders where they are not really organised.
“So this is another approach by the ministry is to cluster them and manage them in clusters so that it will be more effective, more organised and more structured. We want to formalise them,” she answered.
The minister noted that existing rules already require plantations to have compliant housing quarters before they can hire workers.
That said, she announced that her ministry will soon come up with a plantation housing policy.
“It is high time for the ministry to develop a policy on plantation housing.
“Since I came from the Housing and Local Government Ministry last time, therefore now I’m applying housing policies to plantations and estates as well.
“It will be more organised and at least there is a standard that we need to adhere to,” she said.
Zuraida previously served as the housing and local government minister from May 2018 until Aug 2021.
Need workers or lose RM20b
As for the 32,000 migrant workers who will be brought in to work in the palm oil plantation sector, the minister said this was a must.
“Malaysians are still not interested in working in jobs that are heavy, hard and dirty.
“To harvest oil palm, we need migrant workers because we need to capture the 40 percent year-end yield. If we don’t bring in migrant workers, we will lose out to about RM20 billion.
“So that is why the ministry is rushing on this (migrant worker) approval so that workers can come in and do the harvesting, and we can export our palm oil,” she explained.
Asked by Maria Chin Abdullah (Harapan-Petaling Jaya) how the government will ensure all 32,000 were documented workers, Zuraida assured that strict rules were in place.
She also explained that plantation owners will be held responsible for their workers.
“Each plantation owner will write their request for the number of workers that they want. The ministry will approve and they will have to take initiative to bring the workers in.
“Of course, this is with supervision from the Immigration Department and the Home Ministry. This is how we will ensure that once they (the workers) are here, they will be taken care of by their employers who brought them into the country,” she said. - Mkini
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