Parti Rakyat Malaysia today condemned Perwaja Steel Sdn Bhds voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) offered to more than 2,000 workers as cruel and inhuman.

PRM president Dr Syed Husin Ali said in a statement that while Perwaja was quick when it came to acting on workers purportedly to save the company, the authorities meanwhile, such as the Anti-Corruption Agency, appeared reluctant to act against the company and its former managing director Eric Chia.

Is it true the authorities are dragging their feet over Chia because none other than the prime minister is protecting him? queried the veteran politician.

While Perwaja is on the brink of bankruptcy, Chia is living in luxury and opulence in his many palaces in Petaling Jaya. Perwajas workers have been victimised as unannounced scapegoats, he added.

Perwaja Steel Sdn Bhd has issued a VRS to its workers in its Kemaman and Gurun plants. The scheme will automatically be withdrawn if, by March 7, less than 60 percent of the employees accept the offer, in which case they will face retrenchment.

The benefits are to be paid by March 21. Perwaja executives have explained that a month-long closure and the impending retrenchment are necessary in order for it to restructure.

Chia was handpicked by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1988 to take over Perwaja Steel when the former was managing director of EON, the national car distributor.

When he took over, Perwaja was already a loss-making concern with operational problems and manpower difficulties. In December 1986, after its first year in business, it ended up with a loss of $51 million. The first plant, located in the northeastern state of Terengganu, had to depend on a largely untrained, conservative workforce of Malays, who were not used to making steel.

Non-existent company

Syed Husin said Perwajas VRS was only a cover for retrenchment. It is a cruel and inhuman move, especially with Hari Raya Aidil Adha just round the corner.

It appears to be no coincidence that the two plants are to cease operations temporarily for a month until the same date. Of course, there is no better idea than to act against the workers when they are not working, he said.

Syed Husin said it was common knowledge that Perwaja has been facing many problems since the days when the corporation was mismanaged under Chia.

He said under Chias stewardship, Perwaja has, among many other things, suffered an accumulated loss of RM2.985 billion; incurred bank loans amounting to about RM7 billion; awarded contracts valued at RM975 million to companies linked with Koh Mah Shoon and Ng Kim Lin and paid RM76.4 million to NKK Corporation through a Frisham Enterprise in Hongkong which apparently does not exist.

Syed Husin said in year 2000, the then director of ACA, Mohd Zaki Hussein, announced that the ACA had finally made a breakthrough in its investigations into Perwaja.

But not long after revealing this, Zaki was transferred and a police officer appointed to replace him, he added.

MTUC intervene call

In a related development, national news agency Bernama reports that the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress has urged Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn to intervene in Perwajas downsizing plan.

In a statement issued yesterday, MTUC president Senator Zainal Rampak said Fong should meet with the management and the workers' representatives to discuss the issue in detail.

He said any retrenchment, if at all needed, should be based on the last in, first out principle and not according to the whims and fancies of the management.

Zainal said the minister should ensure that the retrenched workers were given the best possible job severance benefits, opportunities for further training and be placed in alternative jobs at wages and benefits that commensurate with their skills, job experience and seniority.