Empowering women plantation workers

Empowerment of Women — By csr on March 12, 2010 at

Two companies with core businesses in plantations submitted entries detailing efforts taken to create greater awareness of, and respect for, the rights of women working on estates - Sime Darby and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK).

The two companies share some similarities - both have histories spanning over a century and both have a sizeable number of women working in a predominantly male workforce. KLK employs 2,933 women, most of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and hence are not highly educated. As part of its general philosophy of caring, the company provides semi-detached houses with free water and electricity to all its employees. Housing benefits for employees are the same, irrespective of gender.

Women employees are also paid the same salary as men, and enjoy more benefits, especially with regard to their health and general well-being. KLK provides regular health check-ups for its women employees, including pap smears and breast examination. In addition, lactating women are exempted from certain duties such as spraying chemicals.

Crèches are provided so mothers are able to work without worrying about the safety of their young ones. There are also kindergartens and schools in the estates to see to the educational needs of employees’ children. To maintain a safe environment for all, auxiliary police patrol the estates round-the-clock. As a result of this, there have been no reported crimes against women or children on KLK’s estates during work hours.
KLK also adopts a positive policy on promoting women to senior positions. Women now head two key divisions - Marketing and Legal & Secretarial. There is a woman manager in the HR department, who helps to resolve gender issues, while the number of women in the internal audit department is also increasing.

All the above initiatives have contributed to KLK’s operations in Sabah being certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable palm Oil (RSPO), for which employee welfare including gender equality is an important element. Meanwhile, the estates in Peninsular Malaysia are well on the way to being certified.

Sime Darby has instituted a Gender Policy Programme which ensures that the dignity and rights of its women employees are safeguarded. Beginning in February 2008, the company embarked on a year-long programme to hear the grievances of women workers, and implement a Group-wide policy to eliminate any form of discrimination. Together with Tenaganita, an NGO dedicated to protecting the rights of women and migrants, a series of workshops were conducted in English, Bahasa and Tamil in all Sime Darby plantations.

The women plantation workers and staff from the Plantation division who attended spoke freely about the issues they face. At the same time, the facilitators informed them about their rights, highlighting the fact that not enough women were taking part at the decision-making level, for example in health and safety committees. At the end of these workshops, the information gathered was used to develop a Gender Policy that focuses on women’s reproductive health, working conditions, domestic violence, sexual harassment, safety and security, housing and basic amenities, wages, gender-based discrimination and childcare.

To ensure the gender policy is adhered to, Sime Darby is conducting capacity-building workshops for its women workers, as well as gender sensitisation workshops for supervisors and managers. There is also a grievance procedure mechanism through which women can report any negative occurrences.

The Prime Minister’s CSR Awards, launched by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development in 2007, aims to recognise companies that have made a difference to the communities in which they operate through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. Download the Official Entry Form.