S’wak oil palm plantation owners seek help from ministry to resolve labour shortage
30/06/2022 (The Borneo Post), Bintulu - This was disclosed by Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) chief executive officer Dr Felix Moh Mee Ho in a statement today.
He said despite the opening of borders and a series of announcements by Putrajaya on foreign labour intake, the plantations and mills have yet to recruit any foreign worker.
To solve the acute labour shortage, a Soppoa delegation comprising its council representatives led by chairman Eric Kiu Kwong Seng on Wednesday paid a courtesy call on Deputy Minister in Premier Department (Labor, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Dato Gerawat Gala at Sarawak Legislative Council complex in Kuching.
“The meeting mainly focused on issues related to labor shortage faced by oil palm plantations here, and to reiterate Soppoa’s commitment to working with the government and stakeholders to steer the industry forward,” he said.
During the meeting, Kiu had highlighted several issues to the attention of the ministry.
He stated that mechanisation had long been implemented in oil palm plantation operations.
The major achievement of mechanisation of oil palm operation is on crop evacuation from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) platform and delivery to ramp or directly to palm oil mill using both lorry and tractor-trailer system, he added.
“Due to differences in terrains and surface contours of the plantation, mechanisation for in-field evacuation of FFB and upkeeping activities like fertilizing or weeding are implemented to a lesser degree.
“Unfortunately, there is no suitable harvesting equipment that is applicable across-the-board to cut down ripe fruits from the trees,” he said.
Kiu said as a result the industry still relies highly on manual labor to carry out harvesting jobs which is very strenuous and requires experienced workers.
He pointed out that in Sarawak, almost all harvesting jobs are carried out by Indonesian workers.
Kiu told the deputy minister that because of worker shortage, plantation managements had to divert all their manpower from other job categories for harvesting and in-field evacuation of FFB.
“As a result many field upkeeping or maintenance works such as frond pruning, fertilizer application and weed control have to be reduced or abandoned totally.
“These un-agronomical practices may lead to less productivity in years to come which requires at least two years of rehabilitation in order to bring the abandoned block back to optimal,” he said.
Unlike other states, Indonesians are the only foreign workers allowed to be recruited to work at oil palm plantations in Sarawak.
Although Gerawat was sympathetic to the plight of the plantation owners, he told the delegation that there are many signs that the Indonesian government does not encourage its citizens to work as labourers in this country.
Moreover, its new capital that reportedly requires about a workforce of one million, creates abundant job opportunities for them to work at home.
He further informed that his department had recently proposed a cabinet paper to include additional three source countries for foreign workers.
In response, Kiu pointed out that South Korean companies have recruited Timorese to work in their country since 2009.
“Due to their similarity in terms of culture and language with Indonesian, it would be advantageous for Sarawak to consider hiring Timorese to work in the oil palm plantation too,” he said.
He also proposed the Sarawak government to open options to India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Gerawat informed that the Foreign Workers Centralized Management System (FWCMS) reported by the Human Resource minister for employers to apply and hire migrant workers is only for West Malaysia.
For Sarawak, the processing of foreign workers still involves the Labor and Immigration departments.
Gerawat said that since the last meeting with Soppoa, his department has looked into streamlining all the processes for foreign recruitment and cut short the processing times as priority.
Among the streamlining efforts were the time for applying for Approval Permit (AP) quotas that used to take up to three months has been shortened to not more than one and half months; the new labor license application that takes up to three months has been cut to within seven days; and Calling Visa application from two to four months to less now than 30 days.
He said his department in the ministry is acting as a ‘one-stop center’ for foreign worker recruitment to Sarawak.
In addition, by incorporating information and communications technology (ICT),Gerawat said the recruitment processing time should be improved dramatically soon.