KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government has taken several measures out of compassion to help former workers of the defunct Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) Sdn Bhd since 2019 and during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Abidin Madingkir said this included payment of their salaries and Employees Provident Fund (EPF), with the latest being payment of some RM798,000 on electricity bills incurred by the former SFI workers.
While the state government empathise with their plight, he said, however, it was not sustainable for the government to solve their predicament in the long run.
“The workers have been laid off by their former employer - India-based pulp and paper manufacturer Ballarpur Industries Ltd - which has been in receivership since 2017,” he said in a statement here on Monday (Jan 16).
“Pending the reactivation of the mill by a new concessionaire, the former workers have been advised to look at the matter realistically, to move on and to seek alternative employment,” he added.
Abidin said the state government had imposed a conditional requirement for the new concessionaire to set up operations within two years.
The former workers, he added, may apply to work in the new company.
“The Sipitang district officer has been directed to engage with and to update the former SFI workers,” he said.
The High Court issued a winding-up order on SFI in November 2021 after the company failed to pay its debts.
Judicial Commissioner Leonard Shim issued the order after the company failed to pay some RM2.7mil owed to its contractors, among others.
Abidin had in November last year told the state assembly that all former SFI employees were allowed to stay in its living quarters for free until a consortium revives the fortunes of the once-successful pulp and paper company.
He added the former employees will be permitted to remain on the company’s premises in the southwestern Sipitang district while waiting for the consortium to take over the downstream operations.
