The Union of Forestry Employees Sarawak (Ufes) claims that the Sarawak government is beaching the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention relating to forestry workers.

They will soon bring up the issue with the Geneva-based International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW).

The union was engaged in a series of court battles with the state government to secure jobs of at least 2,000 employees in the forestry department following the privatisation of numerous department functions.

The union won their case in the high court but the verdict was overturned by the court of appeals.

Livelihood at stake

Ufes president Abdul Wahab Abdullah vows to appeal against the decision at the federal court.

"This concerns workers' rights to organise and seek equal treatment," said Wahab, adding that he would discuss the matter with ILO officials soon.

Meanwhile, Ufes assistant secretary Zaidi Buang, told malaysiakini that the union had sought Suhakam's advice regarding the abrupt termination without compensation of 893 contract staff at the department last year.

These staff were on two months to one year contract which had been renewed continuously over a period of between 10 and 20 years. According to Zaidi, the workers cannot afford costly legal action.

At a recent meeting with Suhakam commissioners Prof Hamdan Adnan and Siva Subramaniam, Ufes officials suggested the government revive the Public Service Commission (PSC) Tribunal (dissolved in 1992) so the grievances of the department contract staff, could be heard like in an industrial relations court.

Suhakam had promised to take the matter up with the relevant authorities, they said.

Environmental holocaust

In a related development, Wahab told malaysiakini that in their complaint to IFBWW, Ufes will also highlight the state government's alleged violation of section 4 of the timber certification process relating to worker's rights and indigenous inhabitants affected by logging activities.

"If this issue is not addressed it will have a significant on the state's timber exports," he warned.

Wahab feels that more should be done to monitor the logging industry, and quoted a European environmental group describing the current rate of global environmental degradation caused by logging as a holocaust.

Wahab is a government assistant conservator of forests and a member of the IFBWW regional forestry committee as well as the Malaysian Timber Certification national council.