About 100 retrenched workers braved the rain yesterday to picket in front of the National Aerospace & Defence Industries Sdn Bhd building in Subang to demand unpaid wages and compensation owed by its subsidiary, SME Ordnance Sdn Bhd.
In their third picket since 2017, the workers who were led by the National Union of Petroleum and Chemical Industry Workers Peninsular Malaysia (NUPCIW) refused to leave their picket line until they were given in writing a pledge that they would receive their unpaid wages by Friday (April 15).
The workers who came in a convoy of about 25 cars from Batu Arang commenced their picket at noon, demanding firstly to be paid their outstanding three- or four-months unpaid wages.
They were also claiming retrenchment compensation, unpaid allowances, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributions and Social Security Organisation (Socso) contributions.
The hot day turned rainy quickly but the workers, who were mostly observing the Muslim fast, took cover under their umbrellas or got into their cars, refusing to leave.
NUPCIW secretary-general Abdul Halim Mansor said the company had failed to make payments according to the deadlines set by the Rawang Labour Department.
“So this time, we were not prepared to leave until we got a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) that payments would be received before or on Friday,” he added.
SME Ordnance agreed to the MOU with a company representative who only identified himself as Hairizal and the group human resource manager handing back the MOU, signed by its chief executive officer Ahmad Nadzer Nordin, to workers at the picket line.
Representing the workers, Halim signed the MOU at the picket line saying this was possibly the first time a union had to sign an MOU by the roadside.
The picket was observed by several Selangor Industrial Relations officers while police personnel kept watch.
On its website, SME Ordnance is described as a Malaysian defence company that specialises in the manufacturing and marketing of ordnance from a factory located in Batu Arang.
It was formerly known as Syarikat Malaysia Explosive Sdn Bhd.
Fuming over company’s lackadaisical attitude
Halim said all 265 union members from the factory were involved in the retrenchment exercise, where some workers were given their 30-day notice on December 1, 2021, and another group was given their notice on Feb 1 this year.
Among them was Marina Hayati Majid, 27, who was retrenched along with her husband who worked in the same factory that manufactured artillery.
“They owe me at least RM10,000 and my husband about RM14,000.
“I have been supplementing my household grocery expenses with my homemade cake business since 2018.
“I had to start a side business because the company was not paying us on time and we usually had to wait three months before we got our salary,” she said.
The mother of two young children said while they were still employed, the company would threaten them if they spoke out about unpaid wages but, “I am speaking up now because I am very angry.”
Marina added that the company had not paid their EPF and Socso for the past four years but deductions were made on their salary slip.
She explained that she and her colleagues had checked their EPF statements and found that the company was not making payments regularly and sometimes paid only part of what was due.
Siti Zaleha Mohamed, 45, who had been working at SME Ordnance for the past 26 years, said only 40 staff members from the management and clerical sections remained.
Many of her colleagues had already taken loans from money lenders because they could not qualify for bank loans owing to the irregular salary payments by the company, she added.
Zairolnizam Kaliwon, 44, who was also the union worksite chairperson, said he too had borrowed money because he was the sole breadwinner with two school-going children.
“I have borrowed RM10,000 from a friend. I am jobless and I can’t start a business because I have no capital.
“It was hard to save money because they don’t pay us regularly,” he added.
Zairolnizam said the CEO always had the same answer for them when asked about unpaid wages, which was “kita akan usaha” (we will try). - Mkini
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