KUCHING: Despite being angry and shocked by the treatment dished out by Sanmina-SCI Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd, its discontented workers who were retrenched yesterday said they would not resort to violence as they believed it would not help their cause.
“We are just seeking clarifications from them. We deserve, and have the right, to know what is going on.
“It is an insult that instead of explaining to us the management preferred to engage us with security personnel armed with shotguns and German Shepherds,” said Tingau, 37, who had worked there for 12 years.
He said, Sarawakians were never a violent lot, and they preferred to seek justice and fair treatment through proper channels.
“We are not terrorists. In fact, many of us have been working here for more than 10 years, so I cannot justify why the company treated us like this,” chipped in ex-colleague James Jalai.
Inah, a 26-year-old technician, said she was only compensated RM1,400.
“My basic is only RM688, and I started working for them about five years ago. I got only a compensation of RM1,400.
“This is very disappointing. How long do you think I can sustain myself with RM1,400? It won’t be able to last me long so I need to find another job very soon,” she bemoaned.
A senior engineer for 14 years, who wanted to be known only as `Mrs Chieng’, 46, said the company had shown nothing but “ruthlessness” in its dealing with its own workers in its so-called “reorganising” effort.
“The compensation is disappointing. As a senior personnel, I can get by because my pay is alright. But those whose basic pay is about RM500, they would face a very difficult time ahead.”
She speculated that the company could have decided to pull out of Sarawak due to the minimum wage requirement.
“About 70 per cent of the total 1,077 workers are receiving less than RM1,000 as their basic pay. And among the 70 per cent, a lot more are receiving less than the minimum wages.
“It could have been due to the last Employee Information Meeting (EIM) dated July 17 where some employees strongly voiced out their demand for yearly increment which has stopped for a few years,” said Mrs Chieng.
She claimed that two years ago, top management would meet the employees through quarterly EIM. However, recently, the new top management stopped the practice and most workers had been kept in the dark in every aspect of company’s operation.
“It was understandable why they wanted to called for EIM. For two years now, we don’t know what is going on with the company. The workers should not be penalised for doing so.”
Meanwhile, Batu Kawa assemblywoman Christina Chew, who was at the scene yesterday, said she would discuss with the Labour Department to see the possibility of finding a solution for better compensation for the employees.
“Unfortunately, according to our Labour Ordinance, the minimum wage package is not applicable to workers of Samnina-SCI, and actually, the minimum pay of the operators here are lower than the ones set by the Labour Department,” she claimed.
Chew said since Assistant Minister of Industrial Estate Development Datuk Peter Nansian said the state government would meet Samnina-SCI, he should inform the employees on the outcome of the meeting.