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| A rubber tapper and Justice
Harun Hashim |
Baradan Kuppusamy
3:13pm Fri Nov 7th, 2003
Malysiakini |
I refer to the article Kit Siang pays tribute to late Harun Hashim
dated Nov 6, 2003.
Allow me to relate to your readers the story of rubber tapper Govinda
Pillai and his fateful encounter with Justice Harun Hashim some
thirty years ago.
First, some background.
As you might know, rubber tappers do not work when it rains. This
is not because they are unwilling to work or afraid to get wet but
because the bark of rubber trees yield less latex when wet and additional
tapping on a wet bark damages the tree. For these reasons, estates
prefer to keep their workers in the barracks when it rains.
You might think it is a holiday every time it rains but no. Rubber
tappers are daily rated they don't get paid for not working on a
rainy day.
During the rainy season when it rains most days, rubber tappers
suffer a drastic reduction in their wages. Hunger grips their stomachs
and they borrow to buy food and soon get into debt - either to the
provision shop or the visiting loan shark. Soon they are trapped
in a vicious cycle of poverty, debt and more debts.
To ease their burden, the paternalistic colonial government introduced
the concept of a "living wage" for rubber tappers. This
simply means that the tapper should be paid a daily wage to enable
him to eat so that he could get up the next day and go to work.
This concept of "living wage" is enshrined in Sec 16 of
the Employment Act 1955. That section guarantees rubber tappers
24 days of wages in a month irrespective of whether it rains or
shines. It is a safety net and protects the poor man from the vagaries
of weather.
For example, if for three days in a particular month the tapper
did not work because of rain, then the estate must pay the three
days wages. But estate barons seldom comply with Sec 16 and always
find ways to avoid this legal obligation. They stick to their inflexible
rule for rubber tappers: No Work, No Pay.
In June 1973 it rained a lot and Govinda Pillai, a rubber tapper
in the former Kinrara estate in Puchong, was only able to go to
work for 17 days that month. He was only paid for the 17 days and
not a minimum of 24 days, as guaranteed by Sec 16. The estate owed
him seven days wages.
Govinda Pillai decided to file a claim in the Kajang labour court
for the balance seven days of wages amounting to RM22.40. Little
did he realize that his claim would shake the entire plantation
industry.
Sure enough, the Labour Court ruled in his favour and ordered Kinrara
estate to pay Govinda Pillai RM22.40. End of the matter? No!
After realising that the claim and the subsequent award, no matter
how paltry, would set a dangerous legal precedent, Kinrara estate,
helped by the planters club, hired the best lawyers in the country
and filed an appeal against the RM22. 40 award in the High Court
in Kuala Lumpur in 1974.
Govinda Pillai's case or rather Kinrara estates appeal landed before
Justice Harun Hashim in 1974 - a fateful encounter indeed!
The stakes were high. If every rubber tapper is paid RM10 per month
per tapper because of rain that amounts to RM120 a year. For 100,000
tappers, the sum would be RM12 million a year from the pockets of
the planters.
Things get a bit muddy from here.
It is not clear whether Justice Harun heard the case in 1974 and
reserved judgment or whether the file was "lost" or "forgotten."
But judgment was delayed for 21 years.
On June 29, 1994 - that is 21 years after the case was filed - and
a day before his retirement - Harun Hashim delivered judgment and
ruled in favour of Govinda Pillai. Kinrara estate has to pay him
RM22.40 as claimed.
In the interval, Govinda Pillai had died along with his lawyer DP
Xavier and the estate was sold and redeveloped into several housing
estates. The estate owners are probably dead too.
I wrote about this strange delay in the Star in July 1994. A day
or two later Justice Harun Hashim responded telling another reporter
in the Star, who unquestioningly reproduced his explanation, that
the file was somehow misplaced and that the court staff found it
21 years later and gave it to him for decision - a day before he
retired.
The same month, I tracked down Govinda Pillai's wife and grandchildren
who were living in great poverty in a ramshackle hut in a "railway
line" squatter settlement near Jalan Ipoh.
She was almost blind. I told her "Govinda Pillai has won the
case!"
"He would have been happy had he been alive," she told
me. During a later visit she said it would cost RM500 in legal fees
to claim the RM22.40.
She never did. It still rains and rubber tappers still don't get
their minimum 24 days wages a month.
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