Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general G Rajasekaran has urged plantation workers and their employers to strike a middle ground over the monthly wage dispute and consider improving the daily wage instead.
The first of his three suggestions is to consider a flat rate of RM20 or RM25 as the daily wage.
For example, if RM25 is taken as the daily wage and it is multiplied by 26 working days a month, a worker who has never been absent will get RM650 a month.
The flat rate should also take into account the payment for authorised leave days.
This definitely works out to a better income than the ridiculous daily wage of RM11.50 and RM14.50 each for rubber tappers and field workers respectively, he told malaysiakini .
Rajasekaran also said that it was better to drop the monthly wage issue since it is quite clear that Mapa (Malaysian Agricultural Producers Association) is all out to oppose monthly wages .
We understand the employers reluctance to pay monthly wages based on the argument that absenteeism is high among their workers, and the implementation of a monthly wage will only aggravate the problem.
The MTUC does not condone such a practice. That is why I suggest that all parties concerned strike a middle ground and focus on improving the daily wage instead, he said.
Enforce Section 16
The second proposal was for plantation workers to insist on enforcing the forgotten Section 16 of the Employment Act 1955 against their respective employers, specifically relating to the vagaries of weather.
Section 16(1) says it is mandatory for the employer to provide his worker with a minimum 24 days wages where the worker is prevented from performing his prescribed duties, and where the employer fails to give him other suitable work.
Sub-section (2) states that a failure to comply with (1) will result in a breach of contract of service by the employer.
This section is vital to protect the rights of workers and it has existed for more than 60 years, but estate owners have continued to flout it blatantly, said Rajasekaran.
For some strange reasons, the NUPW (National Union of Plantation workers) has condoned it while the Labour Department has not invoked it to protect workers, he added.
Annual increment
As for his third suggestion, Rajasekaran proposed that an annual increment be introduced in the plantation sector, taking into account workers gradual progress in life like starting a family and gaining seniority.
This is the only sector without an annual increment. It is time for plantation owners to build this into the daily wage structure, even if it is at a minimum of RM1.
Its a joke to see someone who has been working for 20 years still earning a meagre RM11.50 daily when everyone else has moved on to a better livelihood, he said.
He was also confident that the Industrial Court will support this approach because the argument for introducing annual increment in the sector is very reasonable considering todays living conditions.
Last week, Mapa, citing the national economic downturn, rejected NUPW's proposal for a new collective agreement incorporating monthly wages for rubber tappers and field workers.
Following that, Estate Workers Support Committee co-ordinator A Sivarajan urged the Human Resources Ministry to release the findings of a study on monthly wages for the plantation sector conducted by experts from Universiti Malaya.
This was not their first call for the report to be made public since it was submitted to the ministry at the end of 2000.
MIC president S Samy Vellu was reported saying that a detailed report will be tabled in the Cabinet next month.
In June 2000, he announced that the MIC would undertake a study to enable plantation workers, numbering 180,000, to earn a monthly wage of between RM900 and RM1,000.
