Sarawak oil palm plantation owners appeal for exemption from foreign workers freeze

KUCHING: The Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) said yesterday the Malaysian Human Resource Ministry’s decision to suspend intake of foreign workers in all sectors until end of the year will have a major adverse impact to the palm oil industry in Sarawak which is critically short of labor.

“Such a blanket move to freeze intake of foreign workers is a blow to the already critical shortage of labor in the palm oil industry in Sarawak,” a Soppoa spokesperson said in response to the Ministry’s announcement.

“While we value the Minister’s (Saravanan Murugan) stance that the freeze will give locals opportunities to take up some of these jobs, it should be noted that numerous initiatives to employ locals in the 3-d jobs in palm oil industry including through job advertisements and others have failed in Sarawak,” the spokesman said.

Soppoa is appealing to the Minister to consider the plight of the palm oil industry in Sarawak and allow companies which had tried to recruit locals but still unable to fill vacancies to be allowed to recruit foreign workers to overcome the acute shortage of 20 to 35 per cent of workers.

“In view of the current Covid-19 checks, the palm oil industry in Sarawak is willing to follow the Ministry of Health regulations and Standard Operating Procedures, including quarantine, Covid-19 tests for the intakes of foreign workers to meet the current shortage of workers in the industry in Sarawak.”

According to the Soppoa spokesperson, Sarawak’s small pool of workers is a major factor for the shortage of workers in the palm oil industry here and with the emergence of new industries including manufacturing, oil and gas, timber and construction, locals tend to shy away from the 3-d jobs in palm oil industry.

The same predicament is also felt by oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah where majority of workers in palm oil industry are foreign workers.

Compounding the situation, the palm oil industry in Sarawak has to compete with better established companies in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah for foreign workers which further raise the cost of hiring foreign workers in Sarawak, the spokesperson said.

The Movement Control Order from March until now has already dealt a blow to the palm oil industry here with the departures of many foreign workers who were sent home after their contracts expired.

The palm oil industry in Sarawak is the second highest contributor of revenue for the state and federal government through taxes and one of the top employers in the state for providing jobs to professionals in accountancy, law, biology, engineering and chemistry among others.

“We appeal to the Human Resource Ministry to seriously consider the special circumstances in Sarawak on the ‘untimely’ freeze of foreign workers intake and to allow palm oil industry in Sarawak to continue hiring foreign workers during the rest of the year in view of the serious shortage faced by the industry here.

A major concern is that the peak season for harvesting is due in a few months from now and the palm oil industry is crucially dependent on such harvests to meet increasing cost of production and other capital expenses incurred in the setting up of estates, mills and refineries which also provide jobs opportunities for locals in various categories of skilled and semi-skilled professions,” the spokesperson said.