122.foreign-workers-more-hardworking-managers

http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/05/24/foreign-workers-more-hardworking-managers/

Foreign workers more hardworking – managers

Posted on May 24, 2013, Friday

KOTA KINABALU: The Royal Commission of Inquiry on the presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah was told yesterday that the plantation sector in the state is fully dependent on foreign labour.
This is because locals are reluctant to take up the positions that these migrants workers fill, according to management executives from Aumkar Plantation Sdn Bhd and IOI Corporation in Sandakan and Lahad Datu.

Locals also lack the hardworking nature of foreign workers, Aumkar Plantation’s general manager and director, Nokiah Sannasi, told the commission.

“In my 20 years experience working in the plantation, I noticed that local workers are ‘sensitive’ to certain working conditions and prefer to work indoors unlike foreign workers who come here to earn a living so they are not too picky about where they are posted.
“Foreign workers are also very hard working and can easily adapt to the odd working hours in a plantations,” he said, adding that locals and foreign workers are paid the same wages by the company.
In Aumkar, there are 800 migrant general workers and only 15 locals, he said, adding that the company prefers to hire locals as there are no added costs like levy and work pass to be borne.
“But there are no takers and even if there are local workers, they would leave after just one month as they want to work near the town area,” Nokiah lamented.
He also said that in the past there were illegal immigrants employed by the plantation but all have since been registered through the 5P program conducted by the government last year.
“Every two to three years the Sabah Government will conduct an amnesty program, so we just pray for it and will register the illegal workers when it is conducted. In the 5P program last November, we registered 60 foreign workers,” he said.
Nokiah also disclosed that in the past, he had come across a couple of cases of employees using fake Malaysian identification documents when applying for jobs with the plantation.
One of the individuals was employed as his driver and the incident had occurred in 1999.
“When we employ a local, we will submit the person’s name and IC number to EPF to facilitate the contribution. However, we were informed a month later that the IC number we submitted was issued to another name that is already contributing to EPF.
“I confronted my driver and when asked where he obtained the identity card, all he replied was, ‘never mind and don’t ask so many questions. I will leave’ and he just left,” Nokiah said.
The Human Resource officer for IOI Sandakan, Nalia Rudin, and her counterpart from the Lahad Datu plantation, Luz Davila, also said that the plantations were fully dependent on foreign workers who made up to more than 85 per cent of their workforce.
IOI Sandakan employs more than 6,000 foreign workers while IOI Lahad Datu has 7,490 migrant employees.
Nalia and Luz added that although it was expensive to hire migrant workers, the plantations had to do so because they are unable to attract locals to work for them.
Their migrant workers are all obtained through legal means as they are brought in by appointed agencies.