A paddy and rice workers union will stage two pickets in Selangor and Kedah this week to protest the possible mass lay-offs by Padiberas Nasional Berhad (Bernas).

In a press statement today, Peninsular Malaysia Union of Bernas Employees (KPPbNB) said the first picket will take place tomorrow in Petaling Jaya and the second was scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Jitra, Kedah.

Some 100 to 200 employees are expected to participate in tomorrow's rally.

Union president Mansor Ariffin said the two events are organised to protest the action of the Bernas management to offer Voluntary Separation Schemes (VSS) to some 3,117 of its 3,310 employees.

"Over a period of eight years, the management has failed to focus the business of Bernas because they have been too busy with their own interests.

"If the board of directors were serious with their tasks and responsibilities that they have been entrusted by the government, Bernas would have achieved its goals," he said.

Among the failures of the management, Mansor noted, was its inability to overcome issues such as rice smuggling , unprofessional investments, lack of proper planning and unprofessional administration.

"Instead of tackling these issues, the Bernas management has distributed about 3,117 VSS forms. The union feels that had the management been serious with managing the company properly, then such VSS offers would have been unnecessary."

'Own agenda

'

Contacted later, Mansor said job cuts across all downstream sectors of the industry has been announced by Bernas.

For instance, he said the company intends to reduce its warehouse workforce from 250 to some 70 in line with the closure of warehouses across the country.

He added that workers along the distribution line would also be drastically reduced from over 400 to less than 30.

"Almost all workers have been given VSS offers but they are not going to accept all of them. They will pick and choose the people they want to retain according to their agenda," he said.

Mansor also rejected Bernas' claim that the job cuts were part of a restructuring exercise by the company to cut losses.

"As far as we know, there are no losses. We have looked at the accounts and it shows that there were no losses," he claimed.

The union leader also raised questions over the rising volume of imported rice in the country, not only due to smuggling activities but also to loose issuance of rice import permits.

"Rice can only be imported with (permits) issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. So they are the same ones who allow a lot of (imported rice) to come into the market.

"What we want to tell the public is that this is not just an issue with the VSS but it is also due to our dissatisfaction over some of these practice," he added.

Bernas CEO Ahmad Fuad Abdul Wahab was unavailable for comment.

Profits made

Late last month, Bernas announced that it has been forced to restructure and cut staff as a result of huge losses due to rice smuggling activities.

As part of the exercise, Ahmad Fuad's post was specifically created to enable him to overlook the entire business operations of the Bernas group.

However, the company's claims to losses were also disputed by non-government organisation Teras Pengupayaan Melayu (Teras) which said the company's records unveiled at its latest annual meeting showed that it made profits from last year's operations.

The organisation called on the government to investigate Bernas' accounts and whether there has been abuse of rice import permits.