BINTULU: The Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (KPPK) is confident that organising engagement sessions with industry players can counter misconceptions and accusations from certain parties claiming that Malaysia practices forced labour and child labour in the plantation sector.
According to a news report by Sarawak Public Communication Unit (UKAS), Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Willie Mongin said the government through KPPK has taken various initiatives to monitor and prevent forced labour by continuing to commit to eliminating forced labour, including among children.
“The initiative to monitor and prevent this matter is through the ratification of the Basic Convention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) No. 29 (Forced Labour) and Convention No.182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour).
“This to some extent expresses our commitment at the ministry level to strengthen the industry and we are also committed to working with the Sarawak Government,” he said in a press conference on the Labour Information and Dialogue Session in the Oil Palm Plantation Sector Year 2022 here recently.
Apart from that, he said, they also worked together to enhance the industry to be successful and reach a level that could be proud of.
The programme was held to provide information and advisory services to management and plantation workers in aspects such as the rights and responsibilities of employers and farm workers, issues of human trafficking, best practices in labour, employment and farm mechanisation as well as enforcement and safety issues.
Among the contents of the programme were an information session on the issue of forced and children labour, as well as the best labour practices in the oil palm plantation sector by the Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (MAPO), the Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM), the Peninsular Malaysia Labor Department (JTKSM), Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Malaysian Plantation and Commodity Institute (IMPAC) and Earthworm Foundation (EF).
