'Paying more to attract locals will upset foreign workers'
Aidila RazakPublished: May 22, 2013 4:51 PM | Updated: May 22, 2013 4:59 PM
Offering higher pay to attract local workers will only upset foreign workers, causing the foreigners to seek employment elsewhere, the royal commission of inquiry into illegal immigrants in Sabah heard today.
SABAH RCI
This is why plantation giant Sime Darby pays locals and foreigners the same wage in Sabah, says its executive Jakaria Nasiran.
Offering higher pay to attract local workers will only upset foreign workers, causing the foreigners to seek employment elsewhere, the royal commission of inquiry into illegal immigrants in Sabah heard today.
Sime Darby Plantation's executive officer in charge of foreign workers Jakaria Nasiran said this was why the plantation giant continued to pay locals and foreigners the same wage in Sabah, despite claiming to prioritise locals in recruitment.
"(We) don't want to discriminate against foreigners because we want to retain them. If we give more to locals, the foreigners will run away," Jakaria said to a question from RCI commissioner Herman Luping.
He also testified that the foreign workers hired by Sime Darby Plantations were "more diligent and productive" than the locals as the foreigners were "more concerned about earning their keep, rather than the nature of the job".
Jakaria, the 80th witness before the RCI, said 85 percent of the 5,523 workers working on the 45,582 hectares of oil palm plantations Sime Darby operates in Sabah are from Indonesia and the Philippines.
However, the number of foreigners living on the company's plantations in Sabah is likely three times of that as it includes the spouses and children of the workers.
Sime Darby Plantation pays RM3,500 in levies and fees, per foreign worker, to manpower agencies and this amount could be reduced if recruitment could be done through government-to-government level, as is done in the peninsula.
While the company hires through legal means, Jakaria said, police and immigration officers have nabbed undocumented workers at its plantations in Sandakan, Tawau, Tenom and Kunak.
"It could be that they (the undocumented workers) were brought to work at the plantations by their friends," he explained.
'Foreigners not stealing jobs from locals'
Earlier, Sabah Labour Department director Siti Aishah Mohd Asry in her evidence said employers preferred foreign workers as they "are more diligent" compared with the locals.
Siti Aishah said foreign workers do not take up the employment opportunities of locals as employers needed to show they have exhausted all efforts to hire locals before they can be licensed to hire foreigners.
She said local workers also turned up their noses at jobs that are "dull, dirty and dangerous".
However, she said, there was also the impression that undocumented workers were willing to work for lower wages and were thus preferred by employers.
"For those who are documented, (hiring them) is actually very expensive, with minimum wage, etc, and the cost of bringing in one foreign worker would go into the thousands (of ringgit)," she said.
Siti Aishah said 153,438 permits were issued for non-resident workers in Sabah from January to October 2012 and this included the hiring of workers from Sarawak, Labuan and the peninsula.
"But our main focus is non-citizens," she said.
The bulk of the foreign workers are employed in the plantation sector on the east coast of Sabah, mostly in the Kinabatangan district.
RCI chairperson Steve Shim adjourned the proceedings one-and-a-half hours earlier than scheduled today, after the air-conditioning in the room at the Kota Kinabalu High Court complex malfunctioned, making the room unbearably stuffy.
Sime Darby Plantation's executive officer in charge of foreign workers Jakaria Nasiran said this was why the plantation giant continued to pay locals and foreigners the same wage in Sabah, despite claiming to prioritise locals in recruitment.
"(We) don't want to discriminate against foreigners because we want to retain them. If we give more to locals, the foreigners will run away," Jakaria said to a question from RCI commissioner Herman Luping.
He also testified that the foreign workers hired by Sime Darby Plantations were "more diligent and productive" than the locals as the foreigners were "more concerned about earning their keep, rather than the nature of the job".
Jakaria, the 80th witness before the RCI, said 85 percent of the 5,523 workers working on the 45,582 hectares of oil palm plantations Sime Darby operates in Sabah are from Indonesia and the Philippines.
However, the number of foreigners living on the company's plantations in Sabah is likely three times of that as it includes the spouses and children of the workers.
Sime Darby Plantation pays RM3,500 in levies and fees, per foreign worker, to manpower agencies and this amount could be reduced if recruitment could be done through government-to-government level, as is done in the peninsula.
While the company hires through legal means, Jakaria said, police and immigration officers have nabbed undocumented workers at its plantations in Sandakan, Tawau, Tenom and Kunak.
"It could be that they (the undocumented workers) were brought to work at the plantations by their friends," he explained.
'Foreigners not stealing jobs from locals'
Earlier, Sabah Labour Department director Siti Aishah Mohd Asry in her evidence said employers preferred foreign workers as they "are more diligent" compared with the locals.
Siti Aishah said foreign workers do not take up the employment opportunities of locals as employers needed to show they have exhausted all efforts to hire locals before they can be licensed to hire foreigners.
She said local workers also turned up their noses at jobs that are "dull, dirty and dangerous".
However, she said, there was also the impression that undocumented workers were willing to work for lower wages and were thus preferred by employers.
"For those who are documented, (hiring them) is actually very expensive, with minimum wage, etc, and the cost of bringing in one foreign worker would go into the thousands (of ringgit)," she said.
Siti Aishah said 153,438 permits were issued for non-resident workers in Sabah from January to October 2012 and this included the hiring of workers from Sarawak, Labuan and the peninsula.
"But our main focus is non-citizens," she said.
The bulk of the foreign workers are employed in the plantation sector on the east coast of Sabah, mostly in the Kinabatangan district.
RCI chairperson Steve Shim adjourned the proceedings one-and-a-half hours earlier than scheduled today, after the air-conditioning in the room at the Kota Kinabalu High Court complex malfunctioned, making the room unbearably stuffy.
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