Evicted Ex-workers Take On Plantation Giant Ex-estate workers, their homes demolished by bulldozers, are fighting back, demanding fairer compensation in a classic David vs Goliath battle by Jeyakumar Devaraj
Retrenched because of "Development"
The Bukit Jelutong residents – former employees of Bukit Jelutong Estate - were retrenched in 1997 as Guthrie had received official sanction to convert their 2,200-acre estate into a huge housing and mixed development project. Guthrie offered these workers low-cost flats priced at RM25,000 located in Subang, 20 km away as alternative housing. However, these workers were not satisfied with this offer as their cash compensation was only about RM330 per year of service. This would have been insufficient to pay up the RM25,000 for their flat and would have therefore posed great difficulty for them. Besides, they did not want flats. The Bukit Jelutong workers asked for 3-room low cost terrace houses in Shah Alam itself as well as cash compensation of RM1000 per year of service - which was not asking for too much considering the economic downturn and the difficulty that they were forced into by Guthrie.
Despite intervention by Dato Sivalingam, a Selangor State Exco member, the negotiations remained deadlocked. Guthrie engaged Skrine and Co, one of the largest legal firms in the country, to evict their former workers. The retrenched workers also engaged a lawyer who told them that their case had been fixed for hearing on 27 June 2002. What they did not realise - and had no way of knowing either - was that their lawyer had failed to file a Memorandum of Appearance and that this omission had enabled Guthrie’s lawyers to obtain an ex-parte order from the Shah Alam High Court on 6 June 2002 for vacant possession.
Ex-parte Order for Vacant Possession
This High Court Order granting vacant possession gave the people 14 days to vacate their houses from the date of service of this order on them. If the people had failed to comply with the court order, then the correct legal procedure would require Guthrie/Skrine and Co to go back to the courts to obtain a Writ of Possession specifying a further time period within which the workers would have to vacate their premises. This new order would have to be served on the residents by the court bailiff. Only on completion of this second time period is the bailiff empowered to carry out forced eviction with the help of the police.
However, Guthrie had no patience to observe these legal “niceties” so they held on to this ex-parte order for vacant possession for 3 weeks, then served it on the workers on 26 June 2002. Within an hour of service of this order, the demolition of their houses proceeded without giving them the legal 14 days’ notice. Legalities aside, common sense dictates that people be given a reasonable time to pack up and vacate their houses! But Guthrie chose to play rough and tough, and what was surprising was that the police and the Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam enforcement officials went along with this high-handed and illegal action.
Legal Tricks
The residents of Bukit Jelutong estate, are not alone in their tribulations. The ex-workers of Bukit Tinggi estate, Klang, are in a simliar predicament. Their estate was sold by Guthrie for RM 200 million to Harum Intisari Sdn Bhd for another development project. The workers were offered RM7000 plus RM250 per year of service as compensation. About half the retrenched workers were not happy with the terms of compensation and had asked for further negotiations while refusing to vacate their premises. Guthrie engaged Skrine and Co to file proceedings to obtain vacant posession.
On receiving Skrine’s Writ OF Summons that was served on them, the ex-workers of Bukit Tinggi went to court on 19 March 2002 intending to ask the court for time to engage their own lawyer. They were met by a lawyer from Skrine and CO who told them that their case had been fixed for hearing on 8 April 2002. However, Skrine and Co lawyers went back to the Court Registrar on 26 March 2002 and obtained a Default Judgement awarding Guthrie vacant possession on the grounds that the workers had not filed a Notice of Appearance.
Luckily for the Bukit Tinggi workers, the lawyer whom they subsequently engaged found out that an ex-parte order for vacant possession had been granted to Guthrie. Strenuous efforts including the filing of an urgent injunction restraining Guthrie as well as direct representation to the Chief Justice managed to stave off summary demolition as occurred in Bukit Jelutong
Arrogant Refusal to Dialogue
Guthrie has also got Skrine and Co to file eviction proceedings against its former workers in Changkat Salak Estate and Kamiri Estate both in Sg Siput Perak, where more than 160 rubber tappers were retrenched in December 1999 when Guthrie switched from rubber to oil-palm. Here again there is an unresolved dispute regarding the quantum of compensation with Guthrie only offering approximately RM330 per year of service, the minimum specified in the Employment Act. It must be noted that the Employment Act does no prevent the employer from offering better retrenchment benefits than the minimum stipulated in the Act.
Guthrie’s ex-workers are asking for subsidised alternative housing as well as cash compensation of RM1000 per year of service. In these two estates too, Guthrie has again chosen the hard approach in spurning the ten letters sent by its former workers asking for dialogue, choosing to resort to the courts for an eviction order.
Here again, within several weeks of filing the Writ OF Summons, Skrine AND CO followed up with an application under Order 14 of the High Court Rules asking for a summary injunction for vacant possession. However, the ex-workers of Changkat Salak and Kamiri had been fore-warned by the events in Bukit Jelutong and Bukit Tinggi and had remained alert. Their lawyers filed an affidavit in reply to Skrine and Co’s Order 14 application. The matter is now fixed for hearing on 22 January 2003.
Sucked Oranges
However, the economic progress underwritten by plantation wealth has led to the eclipse of the plantation industry itself. Urban and industrial areas have expanded and consequently the cost of land has shot up. Large plantation companies are in an enviable position as they are sitting on prime land with astronomical market values – for example Guthrie recently sold their 1,366-acre Haron Estate in Klang for RM 522.7 million. However, the plantation workers, who had worked for three generations for a pittance - the average wage of a rubber tapper is still RM350–400 per month - are losing not only their jobs and livelihood but also the houses that they have lived in for the past 50 years and more.
The plantation companies could quite easily set aside a small portion – which really amounts to a miniscule fraction – of their collosal profits to help the displaced estate workers make a smoother transition to life outside the plantations. Unfortunately, however, these wealthy plantation companies are loathe to share even that fraction of their wealth with their former workers who had slaved in these plantations for pittance under deplorable conditions.
Perhaps this uncaring and indifferent approach is not surprising as the relationship between these hugely wealthy companies and their impoverished workers has always been authoritarian and exploitative. The huge profits that these companies enjoyed during the heyday of the plantation sector was predicated upon the existence of a docile, lowly- paid, ignorant, illiterate resident-worker population. As they say, old habits die hard, and it has become part and parcel of the Corporate psyche of plantation companies to be miserly and uncharitable regarding the renumeration and compensation of their struggling workers.
Let’s get the perspective:
Guthrie's Ex-workers' Fight Back
Driven against the wall, and facing a giant company with a ruthless streak, Guthrie’s ex-workers in these four estates have chosen to stand up and fight. These ex-workers from all the four estates have sought sympathetic lawyers to represent them on a probono basis in court and the cases will be heard over the next six months.
The Bukit Jelutong workers have rebuilt shacks on the sites of their former homes and have filed for damages against Guthrie for illegally demolishing their homes. In addition, these ex-workers are appealing to their respective State Governments to intervene and use the Land Acquisition Act, to take over a few acres of Guthrie’s immense land bank to provide subsidised housing for the retrenched workers. They are also lobbying the State Assemblymen to speak up for them in the forthcoming sessions of the State Assembly.
In Perak the retrenched workers from Salak and Kamiri have launched a signature campaign. They are asking workers in other estates as well as the general public to sign a memorandum addressed to the Menteri Besar urging him to intervene and ensure that the workers are provided with decent and affordable alternative housing. The first batch of 3,000 signatures was handed in to the MB’s office on 10 October 2002. The ex-workers and their friends are still gathering more.
Goliath may have struck the first under-the-belt blow, but David is
still on his feet and fighting back. Recent experience shows that Davids do win if they work together and persist in their struggle and if they can move the conscience of civil society to support their cause.
Now e-mail us and tell us what you think.
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Rubber was the largest export item for Malaysia up till the mid-1970s, when it was displaced by oil palm which maintained its position as the largest export-earner for the country for another six years. Wealth generated by the plantation sector has not only enriched the plantation companies but has also provided the country the much-needed foreign exchange to underwrite the development of the nation’s infrastructure and industry.