Cocoa Board staff left in lurch after retrenchment notice

KOTA KINABALU: Some 281 Malaysian Cocoa Board staff nationwide are left in the lurch after they were retrenched with just a month’s notice.

The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) is crying foul over what it described a retrenchment exercise that was callous and cruel.

Cuepacs president Datuk Aznih Muda said the temporary staff  - 157 from the peninsula, 76 in Sabah and 48 from Sarawak were affected - received their termination notices on July 10 that would take effect on Aug 13.

“How could the MCB do this during the Hari Raya season? The management gave a month’s notice to the workers, some of whom have been working there for up to 17 years,” he said here after meeting some of the retrenched MCB staff here.

He said he could not fathom why the MCB with an overall staff strength of 732 had taken the drastic measure of laying off nearly half of its workers.

Cuepacs want Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek to intervene and help the affected staff comprising general workers to research assistants.

He said the drastic move of laying off so many employees gave the impression that something was wrong.

“Is the Malaysian Cocoa Board in trouble? Is the economy so bad that they have to let go of so many their staff?” Aznih asked.

“Is the cocoa industry in a slump? Are they going private? Or are they planning on taking on foreign labour? It’s very unusual that a government agency will resort to such action,” he said.

Aznih said Cuepacs first heard of the mass layoffs from the affected MCB workers in Sabah.

He said of the 281 retrenched staff, one resigned immediately and 94 were offered a three month temporary stint.

“But the temporary stint does not come with any promise of an extension and some are way below the wages they were getting before,” he said.

Among those offered the three month stint was research assistant

Azmi Mautar who monitors the MCB’s smallholder estates.

The three month stint would earn him RM54 per day but this was no where close to Azmi’s current RM3,000 monthly salary.

He said he was in the field when he received the termination notice and immediately had to stop work to recover from the shock of the abrupt termination.

“I felt so discarded by the company who I have worked for tirelessly for 10 years,” Azmi said.