KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's Sime Darby Plantation will set aside a total of 82.02 million ringgit to compensate current and former migrant workers who paid recruitment fees to secure jobs, the company said, amid concerns over its labour practices.
In a statement, Sime Darby Plantation's Group Managing Director Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha said:"We have spent a long hard year auditing, examining, and occasionally, unearthing entrenched practices that needed to be improved or changed." The world's biggest palm oil planter by land size said it will reimburse 15,078 current migrant workers a total of 38.55 million ringgit and set aside a fund of 43.47 million ringgit to reimburse 19,565 former workers.
Sime Darby Plantation said the fees paid by its workers were unreported payments charged by third-party agents in other countries and contravened its own zero recruitment fee policies.