KUCHING: The Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) appeals to the Human Resource Ministry to consider allowing the palm oil industry in Sarawak to continue hiring foreign workers during the duration of the year in view of the serious shortage faced by the industry here.
They said that Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan’s recent announcement that there would be no new intake of foreign workers in all sectors in Malaysia until the end of the year was a major concern to the palm oil industry in Sarawak, and urged the ministry to seriously consider the special circumstances in Sarawak.
“Such a blanket move to freeze the intake of foreign workers is a detrimental blow to the already critical shortage of labour in the palm oil industry in Sarawak,” said a spokesperson from Soppoa in a statement yesterday.
“While we value the minister’s stance that the freeze will give locals opportunities to take up some of these jobs, it should be noted that despite numerous initiatives to employ locals in the ‘3D’ jobs in the palm oil industry including job advertisements and others, these still failed in Sarawak,” they said.
As such, Soppoa expressed their hope that the ministry would consider the plight of the survival of the palm oil industry in Sarawak, allowing companies here which have tried to recruit locals but are still unable to fill vacancies to recruit foreign workers to immediately plug the gap of acute shortage of 20 to 35 percent of workers.
“In view of the current Covid-19 checks, the palm oil industry in Sarawak is ever ready to follow the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) regulations and standard operating procedures (SOPs), including quarantine and Covid-19 tests for the intakes of foreign workers to meet the current shortage of workers in the industry in Sarawak,” they said.
According to Soppoa’s spokesperson, Sarawak’s small populace of workers was a major factor for the shortage of workers in the palm oil industry here.
They pointed out that with the emergence of new industries, including manufacturing, oil and gas, timber, and construction, locals tended to shy away from the “3D” jobs in the palm oil industry – as also seen in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah where the majority of workers in the palm oil industry were foreign workers.
“Moreover, the palm oil industry in Sarawak has to also compete with better established companies of other sectors in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah for foreign workers, which further raises the cost of hiring foreign workers in Sarawak.
“Since the recent movement control order (MCO) in March until today, the freeze on foreign workers recruitment has further adversely impacted the palm oil industry here with the departure of many foreign workers being expatriated after their contracts expired,” they said.
They noted that the palm oil industry in Sarawak was the second highest contributor of income revenue for the state government and also the federal government through taxes, as well as being one of the top employers in the state for providing jobs to professionals in Accountancy, Law, Biology, Engineering, and Chemistry among others.
“A major concern is that the peak season for harvesting is due in a few months from now and the palm oil industry is crucially dependent on such harvests to meet increasing cost of production and other capital expenses incurred in the setting up of estates, mills, and refineries, which also provide jobs opportunities for locals in various categories of skilled and semi-skilled professions,” said Soppoa’s spokesperson.
