KKIP fracas not caused by labour dispute
KOTA KINABALU: Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Datuk Phoong Jin Zhe on Tuesday clarified that the fracas outside a factory in the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) was not caused by a labour dispute as speculated by some on social media.
“I cannot comment much on the case as it is still under police investigations but it is certain that labour issue was not the cause,” Phoong told reporters when asked to comment about the incident which occurred on Monday evening.
Phoong added that he was informed nine individuals had been detained to facilitate investigations into the case.
“We leave it to the police to investigate and get to the bottom of the incident. However, what is certain is that the labour issue is not the cause. I want to clarify that it is not caused by a labour dispute between the company and its employees.
“I have obtained the latest salary slip of all the local employees, to make sure that salary is not the cause,” Phoong who is KKIP chairman said, adding that there are four locals involved in the incident.
He described the incident which had gone viral on social media as unwanted and uncalled for. As it can potentially harm the government’s efforts to attract investment and also harm the state’s image as an investorfriendly state.
“I would also like to stress that workers’ rights are our top priority, I have made this very clear to SBH Kibing this morning that we will not compromise on the workers’ rights. But we will also make sure that the investors’ right to do business in Sabah is also safeguarded as we are a free market as well as a government that upholds integrity and is investor friendly.
“To avoid future incidents, I have asked Kibing to be extra careful and to implement some prevention measures such as looking into mediation between employees because they come from different backgrounds,” he said.
According to him, there are Chinese national employees and local employees in the factory. While in terms of salary, they are decently taken care of. There may be some differences in the working culture and this could have caused stress among the workers.
So their welfare has to be looked into and taken care of, he stressed, pointing out that there is a language barrier as well as differences in culture, and behaviour, and sometimes body language may send a wrong signal.
“So this big company that houses more than 1,000 workers has to be extra careful. The company culture, working atmosphere and environment should be taken care of,” he pointed out.
Phoong added that SBH Kibing management had called for an internal meeting on Tuesday afternoon and its general manager had given an assurance that the company would be extra careful to mediate the workers in terms of culture and so on.
“My role is to ensure that there is no dispute. If there is any I will intervene and be very strict about it like the incident involving SK Nexilis in April last year which was between the workers and sub-contractor.
“My ministry is here to assist any workers who have issues with the management. I will always try my best to assist them,” said Phoong.
In April last year, police detained two construction workers who allegedly assaulted their project director from Korea at KKIP over late salary payments.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kota
Kinabalu police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zaidi Abdullah said police detained nine factory workers, including five Chinese nationals, for fighting outside their workplace in KKIP.
Kota Kinabalu police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zaidi Abdullah said the four locals and five Chinese nationalities were held after they were called by the police to give their statement around 3.30am on Tuesday.
Mohd Zaidi said based on police investigation, the incident happened when one of the foreign workers was believed to have deliberately bumped his shoulder into one of the local workers as they were lining up to punch out after work at around 5.30pm on Feb 26.
“According to the police report, the local worker initially ignored what had happened and was waiting for his turn to punch out, but another foreign worker allegedly shouted and pointed at him.
“The local worker continued to ignore his foreign colleague but upon reaching outside the factory, the local worker was attacked from behind by the foreign worker.
“The situation turned chaotic when other workers from both sides joined the fight,” said Mohd Zaidi, adding that the security guard and other workers managed to stop the fight.
A police report was lodged at 10.22pm on Feb 26 and police called up those involved to give their statement.
Mohd Zaidi added that nine people were detained to assist in police investigation under Section 148 of the Penal Code for possessing weapons at riot.
A 44-second video showing the workers fighting outside a factory in KKIP has gone viral in social media.