Foreign Workers Malaysia (Plantation Sector)
Employment of Foreign Worker
In Malaysia, foreign workers can be employed in the manufacturing, construction, plantation, agricultural, services and domestic help sector.
Services sector consists of eleven sub sectors: (restaurant, cleaning services, cargo handling, launderette, caddy in golf club, barber, wholesale/retail, textile, metal/scraps/recycle activities, welfare homes and �hotel/resort island.
Only nationals from the specified countries below are allowed to work in the selected sectors:
Approved Sectors
Manufacturing
Plantation
Agriculture
Construction
Services sector
Nationals of:
Indonesia
Cambodia
Nepal
Myanmar
Laos
Vietnam
Philippines (male only)
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan
Though there has always been a high demand of foreign workers to work in plantation sectors in Malaysia, yet this sector has always been critisized due to the low wages being paid to the workers.
Jan 1995,
A leading planter argued that Malaysia should allow a free flow of workers among the six ASEAN countries to resolve labor shortages and surpluses. A. Navamunkundan of the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW), one of the world's largest farm worker unions, countered that the solution to plantation labor shortages in Malaysia is "to uplift the image of the plantation industry by providing high wages and good employment benefits for the workers." If plantations were considered "industrial agriculture," they might be expected to pay factory wages and attract workers now pouring into electronics and other factories.
January 1, 1994, Malaysia banned the recruitment of unskilled and semi-skilled foreign workers, but permitted exceptions in some cases for employers who recruited foreign workers directly. Malaysia required 70 local for every 30 foreign workers in most Malaysian workplaces, but granted exceptions to sectors such as plantations.
Malaysia?s plantation sector should come under the ambit of the Rural and Regional Development Ministry and be accorded the same privileges and benefits that settlers covered by the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) enjoy, the Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM) said.
by Humayun Kabir (16/10/2009)
Nov 19 2009
Oil palm plantation and rubber estate workers gathered at the Parliament of Malaysia protested against the statement of Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok?s that the workers were above the poverty line. The statement would provide a reason for depriving access to government allocated benefits to plantation workers. Dompok said the net income of an oil palm harvester was about RM 1,700 and a rubber tapper earned around RM 870, which were far higher than the rural poverty line of RM 720 a month. However, the immediate study conducted by workers showed that the average wage of these labourers is lower than RM 700. The workers demanded that the minister visit the estates and to gather evidence of their wealth and the availability of the said facilities.
Recently there hase been a huge demand of Nepalese workers for plantation / reforestration sectors in Malaysia from the state of Sabah & Sarawak.
Find More
Lawyer Articles
