SARAWAK employers and workers have mixed views of the government’s Locals@Work initiative announced in the recent Budget 2020.

Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak secretary Andrew Lo said for now, he gave a cautious welcome to the incentive for companies to reduce reliance on low-skilled foreign workers.

“I do not have the full details of how it is going to work. Until I see the details, I cannot give any meaningful comment,” he said.

Under the scheme, locals hired to replace foreign workers are paid RM350 or RM500 per month, depending on the sector, for two years.

The employer gets RM250 monthly for two years.

The initiative comes under the wider Malaysians@Work which will cost the government RM6.5 billion over five years and create 350,000 jobs for locals while reducing dependency on foreign labour by more than 130,000 workers.

Lo said the Locals@Work initiative must be a one-off, short-term programme that should run no longer than two years.

“This is taxpayers’ money. Why are we using taxpayers’ money to subsidise employers?”

Lo said there would be no incentive for employers to modernise their operations if the programme were to “go on and on”. 

“Why should they when labour is cheap?”

For example, a worker at one of Sarawak’s oil palm plantations, which are heavily reliant on Indonesian labourers, is paid a starting salary of RM1,100.

Under the Locals@Work initiative, employers who hire locals would get their payroll subsidised by RM250 per worker.

This would encourage the employers to stick to labour-intensive processes instead of making the transition to high-tech.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bardan did not see how the programme would lure young, rural unemployed Sarawak youth to work in the plantations.

“It’s also a set culture and the new mindset,” he said, alluding to young Dayaks’ preference for work in the oil and gas industry and their plantation-worker parents who want something better for their children.

Shamsuddin said unless the plantations are modernised, it would be difficult to convince Sarawak’s rural youth to take up hard and dirty plantation jobs which the Indonesians are more than willing to have.

“The industry needs to invest in machinery to make it attractive enough for locals to take up the jobs.

“The issue of pay is obvious but it’s not the one and only reason for them not to take up work in the plantations.” – October 16, 2019.