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File photo for illustration purposes.
KUCHING (Mar 6): A total 6,767 workers were retrenched in Sarawak for the whole of last year, revealed a labour statistics issued by the Sarawak Labour Department.
Kuching district is the worst affected having recorded the highest number of retrenchments with 3,381 followed by Miri with 2,538 workers retrenched.
Other districts affected are Marudi with 275 retrenchments, Sibu (201), Bintulu (126), Mukah (68), Sri Aman (45), Betong (42), Saratok (30), Limbang (26), Lawas (26) and Samarahan (9).
Sarawak Labour Department director Awang Raduan Awang Omar in a statement today said the financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic had led to employers to undertake this retrenchment exercise.
He revealed a total 332 notifications of retrenchment were received from employers in the state for the whole of last year.
The highest number of notifications were in Kuching from 162 employers followed by 125 employers in Miri.
There were no notices of retrenchments received in the districts of Serian, Sarikei, Kapit and Bakun.
“As of December 2020, a total RM 52.7 million in compensation have been paid by the employers to the affected employers. This amount is the biggest recorded in the history of Sarawak Labour Department for compensation of laid off workers, including those who were affected by voluntary separation scheme and and temporary layoffs,” he sad.
He said among the affected economic sectors to implement layoffs during January to December 2020 are hotel and food services, retails and wholesales, construction, manufacturing and mining (oil and gas).
In those five sectors alone, a total 4,834 local workers were retrenched by 216 employers.
“Several factors have been identified as the cause of the retrenchments, among them are company downsizing and winding up of companies. This is due to financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which seemed to be out of control. The impact from this pandemic affected the people’s incomes (and purchasing power),” he said.
He also noted that although worker termination is the prerogative of the employer, the employers are reminded that they must provide notice and pay all forms of compensation or termination benefits as stipulated under the Sarawak Labour Ordinance (Chapter 76) and other relevant labour laws.
“Employers in the state need to understand the retrenchment process so that it can be done in an orderly and in accordance with current labour laws so that the rights and the welfare of the workers are safeguarded,” he said.
On a related matter, Awang Raduan said among the types of actions that are often implemented by employers other than from retrenchment is implement the reduction in salary of workers.
He revealed a total of 3,765 local workers are affected by the implementation of salary reductions by 166 employers in various districts in the state.
“Apart from salary reductions, 27 the employer implemented voluntary separation scheme involving 315 local workers, while five other employer implemented temporary layoffs involving a total of 89 local workers,” he said.