MTUC pledges to help 1,500 workers retrenched by plant

KUCHING: Sarawak MTUC has stepped in to help the 1,500 employees who will lose their jobs when Western Digital closes its plant in the Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone in March.

Its secretary Andrew Lo, who met with some of the workers on Friday, has written to the company’s chief executive officer, urging the latter to reconsider the plant’s closure.

“We ask you to consider scaling down operations, running on fewer shifts and taking all necessary measures as laid down in the Code of Conduct for industry harmony before resorting to closing down the factory entirely,” he added.

A copy of Lo’s letter was made available to the media.

Lo argued that it would make better economic sense for the company to close down one of its other plants in the peninsula as it would be easier to relocate workers to its other factories.

Dark clouds loom: The fate of 1,500 workers is in limbo with the closure of the Western Digital plant in Kuching next March. — Bernama

Western Digital, the world’s second largest computer hard disk drive manufacturer, operates factories in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

“The relocation cost for workers in Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia is very high,” added Lo.

He said if retrenchment was inevitable, the company should pay higher retrenchment benefits than those stipulated by law.

Lo said the plant’s closure would not only affect employees and their families but also the company’s suppliers and providers of support services.

He added that retrenching 1,500 employees was extreme as it was more than 15% of the workforce in the city’s electronic industry.

“As a result, it will be extremely difficult for the retrenched employees to secure alternative employment.

“It will also deter potential investors from coming to Kuching,” he added.