Looking beyond Indonesian manpower

Sarawak seeks federal approval to recruit plantation workers from other countries to resolve labour crunch

Plantation owners have asked to recruit workers from Bangladesh in view of the difficulty they are facing in recruiting workers from Indonesia.

Dato Gerawat Gala

KUCHING: Sarawak is seeking the federal government’s approval to source more plantation workers from other countries beside Indonesia, a er it was revealed that the acute labour shortage had caused the state to lose RM2 billion in revenue last year.

Deputy Minister in the Premier of Sarawak’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Dato Gerawat Gala said planters were asking for the opportunity to recruit workers from Bangladesh because of the difficulty in sourcing workers from Indonesia.

“We are seeking the government’s approval for more source countries for plantation workers besides Indonesia.

“Plantation owners have asked to recruit workers from Bangladesh in view of the difficulty they are facing in recruiting workers from Indonesia,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.

The Indonesian government, according to Gerawat, is not encouraging their workers to come and work as plantation workers in Malaysia.

During the movement control order (MCO) period when borders were closed, he said the Malaysian government allowed plantation companies to extend the work permits of their existing workers whose documents had expired when they could not return to Indonesia.

“This was referred to as a recalibration exercise to allow workers whose work permits had expired and could not be renewed in time during the MCO.”

The recalibration exercise also allowed employers to extend their workers’ work permits for up to two additional years beyond the limit of 10 years, he added.

Gerawat said in order to a ract foreign workers, planters must ensure that workers are well taken care of and provided with safe and comfortable housing as well as basic facilities such as clean water and electricity.

Planters also need to take heed of Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg’s advice to focus on research and development to mechanise and digitise plantation works in the future so as to reduce reliance on foreign labour, he added.

Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) chairman Eric Kiu was quoted by The Star saying that last year alone, their members needed around 45,000 foreign workers to intensify production.

“Using the 1:10 worker to area ratio, Sarawak needs about 160,000 workers to achieve optimal operation.

“Unfortunately, many plantations are running at 50 per cent capacity now.

“Unlike Peninsular Malaysia, presently Sarawak plantation companies can only source workers from Indonesia,” he said in a statement Tuesday.

According to the report, Kiu said the harvesting of palm fruit is still heavily dependent on workers and any shortage in harvesters will result in reduced CPO production.

“Sarawak produced about 3.9 million tonnes of CPO in 2021, which was 3.68 per cent lower than the year before. This translated to a loss of about RM2 billion in revenue for last year,” he said.