Wednesday April 16, 2008
Selangor to help estate workers
By EDWARD RAJENDRA
SHAH ALAM: Selangor will create bylaws to ensure that estates earmarked for growth will provide land or mid-cost houses for their displaced workers.
State Health, Plantation Workers, Poverty and Caring Government Committee chairman Dr A. Xavier Jayakumar said it was time for such laws to be formulated to ensure that estate workers are not left in a lurch because of development.
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Addressing needs: Dr Jayakumar meeting estate workers at his office in the State Secretariat Building in Shah Alam yesterday. |
“All this while, it was just a policy that estates earmarked for development would provide an option for the workers to purchase a RM35,000 low-cost flat or accept RM7,000 cash and move out,” he said.
Jayakumar added that the policies practised previously could not secure a decent roof for an estate worker as developers had the legal right to challenge it and evict the workers.
“Now, we want the policies reviewed and made into bylaws as then only will it be binding on plantation owners,” he said.
Earlier at the state secretariat building, he met up with several estate workers whose family members have been working for Ladang Abaco, Ladang Dunedin, Ladang Glengowrie, Ladang Bangi and Ladang Semenyih for four generations.
Jayakumar said he would meet representatives from the National Union of Plantation Workers, non-governmental organisations, Malaysian Trades Union Congress and The Malaysian Indian Dilemma author M. Janakey Raman to formulate laws on the needs of estate workers.
He said another meeting would be held with owners of the 101 plantations throughout Selangor to ensure that the workers are treated well and basic amenities are provided.
“Some developers are kind. For instance one developer in Bukit Raja had given 6ha of land recently for 64 families where landed properties would be built together with the necessary amenities. In this kind of situation, it makes it easier for the state administration,” he said.
Jayakumar added that he would soon be going on a tour of all the estates to see their conditions for himself and at the same time look into the health problems faced by the women and children in the estates.
“Over the week I have been made to understand that most women in the estates are anaemic, especially after child birth. For this we will use the existing tools like the state’s mobile clinics to go into these estates and provide the necessary aid,” he said.
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