Good news for estate workers(the Star)

Tuesday April 8, 2008

By ELAN PERUMAL

ESTATE workers in Selangor can expect better things with the state government taking a serious look into their working environments and living condition, state estate workers committee chairman Dr Xavier Jayakumar said.

Dr Xavier said his office would be working closely with the Selangor branch of the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) so that the welfare of the estate workers would be taken care of.

He said he had a meeting with the NUPW on Friday and it was a fruitful session and there would be more consultative meetings.

Working together: Dr Xavier having a discussion with Navamukundan.

“NUPW has forwarded a memorandum addressing the issue of basic amenities for the workers which includes water and electricity supplies and the home ownership scheme.

“We have spoken at length on the home ownership scheme and the workers can definitely expect something good to come from the state government soon,” he said after meeting NUPW general secretary Datuk G. Sankaran, executive secretary A. Navamukundan and Selangor secretary V. Tamasegaran.

Dr Xavier said the Pakatan Rakyat Government was aware of the plight of the estate workers and was fully committed towards increasing their standard of living.

While the state had progressed a lot over the last 50 years, he said the question to be answered was how much things had changed for the estate workers who had contributed towards the economic growth of the nation.

“We want the condition in estates to improve and we will be calling about 100 estate owners for a meeting soon.

“We expect to gauge the condition of the estates from the perception of the owners before visiting the estates,” he said.

Sankaran said he was happy with the meeting and hoped the union’s proposals and feedback would be taken seriously by the new state government.

He said NUPW was keen on implementing a workers housing scheme in all estates.

“We hope the new government will make the estate workers housing scheme compulsory for all estate managements to implement,” he said