Health before wealth - the way forward

 

“We need to provide a conducive environment for them (workers). It’s actually a win-win (solution) and helps with sustainability for the company [...] Certainly with those who do not comply (with these laws) you can see the multiple issues they have to deal with. That will also jeopardise their operations and (goods) production in their company,”

- Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah

These visionary words are foretelling and far-sighted. It comes from the mouth of an expert in health who has been breathing, sleeping and talking about Covid-19 for the past eight months – almost on a daily basis.

It should not be viewed as if he is wielding a big stick, baulking on errant employers or factory owners. It is not a call to put profits before welfare either. Neither is it a threat to enforce the law to the letter.

Instead, it is a plea for some kind of compassion and thoughtfulness for fellow humans. He seeks consideration, sympathy and concern for the working class.

It is a cry for some form of leeway to the archaic master-servant relationship between employers and employees. It is also an imploration of old ways of cure after prevention rather than prevention is better than cure.

If an employer cannot provide living conditions which meet basic standards of what would be called “decent”, how does he expect his workers to be productive to an expected level?

How do employers sleep in their air-conditioned bungalows knowing well that the worker whose efforts entitled to him to that lifestyle is sleeping in a ramshackle in the construction site?

How does his conscience allow him to appear before the media and cameras to untruthfully state that everything is hunky-dory when it is not? How can he afford even a smile when hundreds of his workers have been tested positive?

Is there nothing that can induce him to provide a decent answer to the many questions that have been raised but answered with using “we are spending millions of ringgit to upgrade”?

Should it have been done when amendments to the Workers’ Minimum Standard of Housing and Amenities Act 1990 were planned in 2015? How many advisory notes were sent before its implementation on Sept 1? Why cry, plead and beg, claiming “we do not have time and it is being required during bad times?”

Are workers who made it possible for double-digit dividends and bonuses to shareholders who made that all possible not considered as partners but just another insignificant spoke in that wheel of fortune?

Does it need rocket science to understand the basic principle – when the workers are sick, production stops and there will be no product to sell? Then when the win-win situation (which Noor Hisham advocated) turns into an ugly lose-lose solution, money becomes a great leveller.

The finger-pointing will start with from the top and will end with the despatch rider who commutes to deliver some belligerent and argumentative riposte that “we have no problems. The minister made a mistake".

Health Ministry officials met with representatives of the publicly listed firm on Thursday but Noor Hisham was diplomatic – he did not single out any company. It was an appeal to all and sundry.

“We looked into not only the company (Top Glove) but other companies as well. We are looking into the welfare, health issues and safety issues of the workers,” he said. 

This commentary, too, is looking at the whole paradigm and not an indictment of any company.

And the authorities shouldn’t be looking at just PLCs or multi-nationals. 

Imagine 15 restaurant workers in an apartment having to share one toilet one bathroom? Does the employer realise that some of them get up very early in the morning to be in front of the queue so that the employer does not deduct his wages for coming late?

How many times have you passed by a construction site complete with a nearby kongsi – made from discarded plywood? 

How many times have you seen fires in the night on one of the completed floors in a multi-storey building? Aren’t they humans too? Don’t they deserve some decency after having compelled to sail the high seas to enrich the developers?

In October 2018, when The Guardian accused Top Glove of using forced labour in its operations, its chairperson Lim Wee Chai (above) denied the claim.

Then, on Oct 6, 2020, there was an admission of sorts when the company announced it will pay RM136 million over the next 10 months to compensate its migrant workers, as part of its efforts to resolve the US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) import ban over forced labour claims.

Often, we come across some company officials pictured in media reports handing over mock cheques as part of their CSR programme and proclaim loudly that “we are playing our role as a corporate citizen”.

But what lurks behind the scenes? Who produced the goods or provided the services and under what conditions were they undertaken?

This is a clarion call the owners, directors and human resource personnel of companies: Do the right thing; put welfare and health of workers first; illness does not discriminate, everyone is a potential victim. And you should not allow third parties to dictate the paradigms for managing your workers.

This is to shareholders of PLCs. Don’t be just contend with attending AGMs and enjoying the sumptuous food and the goody bags. 

You have to start talking – asking about the conduct, the labour practices and the wellbeing of the workers. Is that asking too much, especially that the dividends that you collect come from their hard work?

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R NADESWARAN believes that a good employer-employee partnership benefits everyone. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com  - Mkini