KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans seeking work are urged to register with the Sabah Job Centre (SJC), a one-stop integrated hub for government and private sectors and the public to advertise vacancies.
“This way, the employees will be assured a job to suit their skills and qualification, as well as those who are interested to join in the oil and gas industry,” said Datuk Iskandar Malik yesterday.
The Sabah Oil and Gas Contractors Association president described what befell the over 130 workers, who claimed they received unfair treatment by one of the contractors at the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) in Kimanis as unfortunate.
“They are not employees of any SOGCA members,” he said, adding: “These workers must explain whether they were directly employed by the company or went through a private employment agency as any of these two could have cheated them in some ways.”
He said the private employment agency could have marked up the rates of these employees, thus forcing the company to seek cheaper alternatives, and that is by engaging foreign workers.
“That is why I always advise the employees to avoid unauthorised employment agencies. The government has set up the SJC, so they can rest assured that they would be referred to trusted companies,” he said.
He added that for the SOGT project alone, there are vacancies for at least 2,000 skilled workers.
“All they have to do is to go through the right channel,” he said.
He said the SJC is a one-stop job centre for government and private sectors in Sabah, which serves as the integrated hub for government and private sectors and citizens, for employment opportunities, jobseeker’s resumes, career information and advice, training courses and continuous professional development programmess.
The unsatisfied employees diclosed that they had been working for eight months as pipe fitters and welders at the SOGT project, but their work was recently put on hold following the unrest at the site about a month ago.
They were promised that they could resume work three days after the incident, but they were still out of work until today.
And to make things worst, they were told that at least 200 foreigners from Philippines were taken in to replace them.
They are just hoping their employers would keep their word as they have families to feed.