MORE than a third of Malaysia Cocoa Board (MCB) employees have been dismissed, according to the country’s largest trade union body.

A total of 281 temporary and part-time employees will be let go on August 13, with only 94 of them offered a three-month contract on a part-time rate of RM54 per day.  

The number accounts for 38% of the board’s manpower nationwide, with 157 in Peninsular Malaysia, 76 in Sabah and 48 in Sarawak. 

Cuepacs president Azih Muda said this is the first mass retrenchment in the public sector and doesn’t reflect the positive economic development of the country. 

“Some of the workers had worked up to 17 years at the board and contributed a lot to the organisation. 

“Is the government planning to outsource their jobs to foreign workers?” he asked during a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today.  

“It shows that privatising the public sector is not such a good idea. There have been numerous instances where the government had to spend more to bail out failing privatisation exercises in the past.”

He said the staff received their termination notice on July 10 amid Hari Raya festivities, on the grounds that some of them did not meet the Public Service Department (PSD) education requirements with the regularisation of the public service sector in 2013. 

“A department circular saw several revisions for 81 job schemes in 2013. The minimum education requirement was upgraded from Primary Six and Form Three to PT3 and PMR examinations,” he said. 

“But this is not the reason they should be let go. I believe the board may be hiding the real reasons. 

“It could be financial constraints, but we are not sure,” said Azih.

Azih called on Agriculture and Agro-based Minister Shabery Cheek, Human Resource Minister Richard Riot and Prime Minister Najib Razak to step in to resolve this issue. – July 24, 2017.