Tumbok Estate folk get choice of houses or money

G Team says they must decide before Maika winds up.

KUALA LUMPUR: The former workers at Tumbuk Estate now have a choice between free houses and monetary compensation, but they have to decide quickly.

The offer is being made by G Team Resources Sdn Bhd, which last year acquired a majority stake in Maika Holdings Sdn Bhd, the main owner of the estate.

G Team’s chief operations officer, T Tamil Selvan, told FMT that Maika, MIC’s investment arm, would be wound up soon.

He said the former workers must say clearly whether they wanted housing or money “and we will work something out”.

Over the last few weeks, G Team has been the target of criticism from the pro-worker NGO Jerit and the 14 families still living in the estate. They claim the company promised to build houses for the former workers in their agreement with Maika in 2006.

Maika holds a 31% percent stake in Tumbuk Estate. The rest are held by private investors.

The residents have also claimed that G Team withheld utility bills amounting to RM2,500, resulting in their water supply being disconnected.

Tamil Selvan said the 2006 agreement obliged Maika to subsidise only RM25 per family for water supply. “So legally, we should only pay about RM550 a month.”

However, he admitted that his company did not pay RM16,000 in water bill, as it claimed recently, but only RM6,500 since June 2010.

“It was a typing error from our side when we issued the statement,” he said.

Explaining why Maika had not built houses for the former workers, he said the then management decided to shelve the project in 2008 because the residents could not decide which families would get the corner houses.

“And they argued even after lots were drawn. So Maika had no choice but to postpone the project.”

In a meeting in Nov 2010, after the acquisition, the 22 families eligible for the houses became divided again, he added.

Ex-gratia

He also said ex-gratia payments, amounting to RM201,000, were held back as a down payment for the housing project.

“However, the money was missing from Maika Holdings’ account when we acquired it,” he said.

He also said he told the former workers it would be difficult for them to get housing loans as they were all retired.

“And that’s when we decided to take a vote, in the presence of Selangor exco Dr Xavier Jeyakumar,” he said. “Out of the 22 present, 12 agreed to take the monetary compensation—between RM30,000 and RM40,000—as opposed to restarting the housing project.

“And in June this year, another two agreed to accept the compensation. We then prepared compensation for all of them as we had a clear majority.”

Asked to explain why there were now 14 instead of eight opposing monetary compensation, he said the newcomers were those deemed ineligible for the housing scheme in the 2006 agreement.

“I even asked them to produce evidence that they were in list of those eligible, but they failed to do so,” he said.

He reminded the residents to make their decisions quickly for they might end up with nothing after Maika got wound up.

“It is out of sheer goodwill that we are trying to resolve the residents’ plight before closing down Maika Holdings. We want the matter to be resolved as soon as possible.” he said.