A leading plantation workers support group has vowed to stage a press conference on the 29th of each month to get Cabinet ministers and MPs to come clean with their election promises.

The Plantation Workers Support Committee, a coalition of NGOs that struggle for the rights of estate workers, said that it wanted the elected officials to make into law the provision of a monthly salary and a proper housing scheme for all estate workers.

"We won't let them sleep, we will keep reminding them of their responsibility," S. Arutchelvan, Community Development Centre (CDC) coordinator told malaysiakini after PWSC's first press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

PWSC, which is made up of CDC, Suara Warga Pertiwi, Alaigal, Community Front and Kumpulan Kemajuan Masyarakat, said the government cannot so easily wash its hands of the plantation workers' woes.

"They should not claim the estate problem is a private sector issue," said PWSC coordinator R. Mohana Rani.

"We still hear that, despite all the problems that the plantation workers are facing, the government needs to do more study. But we have studies done for the past 20 years. We have had enough of studies!" she said. "Don't try to cheat the estate workers."

The plight of plantation workers has remained a sore thumb in industrialising Malaysia. There are currently about 112,800 workers in 1,000 estates, and they earn a daily wage of RM12.

Another PWSC coordinator, S. Velan, urged the government to amend the law so that workers would be paid a monthly salary rather than a daily wage.

A few years ago, PWSC launched a signature campaign calling on the government to implement a monthly wage and make improvements in the current housing scheme.

The campaign eventually paid off in January this year when the National Land Finance Cooperative Society (NLFCS) became the first plantation to implement the monthly wage scheme for its workers. Instead of daily wages, NLFCS offered a monthly wage of RM380 along with added incentives to earn more.

"At least the workers are now assured of RM380 salary regardless of the weather, and on average they can get about RM500 to RM600 per month," said CDC's Arutchelvan.

But for those who are paid a daily wage, they can hardly get more than RM100 per month during the raining season. Eventually, most of them ended up being in debt. One of them is S. Munusamy from Kamiri Estate in Sungai Siput.

Munusamy said that his income is always not stable. Apart from the rainy season, rubber trees during the warm season produce less latex, he explained.

He pointed out that the monthly salary scheme which was initiated by NLFCS was put on a six-month testing period and the company appeared confident to continue with the plan. "Why can't the other estates do the same?" he asked.

On Monday, MIC chief S. Samy Velu announced that a working paper on the monthly wage issue would be presented to the Cabinet in February next year. However, PWSC felt that the issue had been dragging on for too long and that the "government appears to play politics with the workers will".

"No more lip service," Munusamy said. "We want changes now."