The National Union of Plantation Workers has been accused of "living in its own world" and for failing to advance the struggle of its down-trodden members.

The Plantation Workers Support Committee (PWSC) today warned that the national union could become obsolete if the struggle of plantation workers is pursued by other organisations.

"With dwindling membership and loss of what little influence it had in the past, NUPW is now staring at its own demise in the future.

"NUPW's failure is the reason why the workers have been turning more to community-based non-governmental organisations," said PWSC coordinator D Letchimi Devi, whose NGO campaigns for improvements in the plantations.

She also slammed NUPW's executive secretary A Navamukundan and general secretary G Sankaran for blaming employers, NGOs and workers for the appalling conditions in the plantation sectors.

"Navamukundan claimed that the workers were leaving the plantations because the employers failed to offer a comprehensive employment package .

"We feel while that may be true, what he failed to admit is the abject failure of NUPW in securing decent wages and living conditions for the plantation workers," she said.

Letchimi added that until today, housing conditions in most estates in rural areas were still not in accordance to the requirements of the minimum standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990.

"After years of negotiating, what has the union achieved? If the days of picket or strikes have passed and negotiation is the answer to all woes of plantation workers as put by Sankaran, why then do the problems remain unsolved?" she asked.

'Cosmetic change'

According to Letchimi, the recently concluded palm oil collective agreement between NUPW and the Malaysian Agriculture Producers Association failed to implement the actual concept of monthly wage to the workers.

She added the union had contended that the RM325 agreed upon with Mapa was a monthly wage when in reality the agreement stated that the amount was a guaranteed security net if the workers turned up for work on the provided working days.

"This shows that the colonial wage system that was daily-based and determined by external factors has been maintained.

"Therefore, the new monthly wage system is merely a cosmetic change in order to impress the workers and to cover-up the union's failure to negotiate a decent monthly wage system," said Letchimi.

She also questioned Sankaran's accusation that the workers and NGOs were asking for unreasonable demands.

"What is unreasonable? Is the workers demand for fair wage and better living conditions unreasonable, or is the mere RM325 negotiated by the union reasonable?"

Idealism and reality

She pointed out that while her organisation had asked for a minimum wage of RM750, others have demanded an even higher amount.

This, she said, included the Malaysian Trade Union Congress, which is seeking a minimum wage of RM900, while Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad suggested RM1,200 and the Primary Industries Ministry had in 1998 said that it was looking into the possibility of plantation workers earning RM2,000 per month.

Yet, she lamented, the national union was calling all of them idealists while the amount of RM325 was deemed reasonable by the union.

On Monday, Navamukundan urged NGOs to "check their facts first" and not exploit estate workers to gain mileage.

He added that such groups should also understand the difference between idealism and reality as far as the campaign for minimum wage was concerned.

Meanwhile, Sankaran had said that estate workers must understand the value of productivity against wage entitlement and not make excessive demands without proper consultation.

They were both speaking after attending the recent NUPW northern region's 12th delegates conference in Sungai Petani, Kedah.