We refer to the news report Higher pay, but locals still shun estate jobs carried on page 23 of The Star on June 11.

The Estate Workers Support Committee, a coalition of plantation workers and grassroots organisations working with plantation workers, wishes to correct the gross untruth about this 'higher pay' claim.

The report states, 'Salaries earned by commercial plantation workers in the country have increased substantially, with the lowest paid earning between RM800 and RM1,000 a month', and further goes on to say, '... the wages were more than twice what these workers earned before'.

The truth is:

• Estate workers in peninsular Malaysia still earn between RM300 to RM500 a month.

It is therefore not hard to see why locals shun estate jobs. Low wages coupled with oppressive colonial-style estate management cannot attract nor retain local labour.

We have presented numerous memoranda to the government on the issue of a fair wage and a modern wage structure over the past 11 years. The government incidentally includes plantation workers in its category of poor, in the Malaysia Plans.

But instead of directing plantation owners to pay a fair wage to their workers, it has permitted the import of foreign labour to work in the plantations. This move has only weakened the bargaining power of local estate workers.

Why would locals who can find employment elsewhere stay behind on starvation wages and help the plantation companies make their millions?

There is no need to keep alive an industry that has and continues to generate poverty. We say, shut down the plantation industry, and compensate each worker with land for housing and commercial purposes

The writer is coordinator of the Estate Workers Support Committee (Jerit).