KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Plantation Bhd has refuted the findings from the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) over unreported recruitment fees and retention of its foreign workers' passport.
SD Plantation group managing director Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha said the comprehensive suite of reforms that the company had taken had met and exceeded established labour standards.
"Unfortunately, the assessment's team findings do not reflect the substantial revisions, improvements and modifications that have been implemented by SD Plantation during the past year.
"For example, as you may be aware, following our announcement on Feb 15 2022, SD Plantation issued payments to all its current workers to reimburse them for any recruitment fees or other costs that they may have incurred in connection with their efforts to secure employment with us.
"Since March 2022, SD Plantation has commenced the process of making similar payments to eligible former workers," he said in a letter to RSPO dated Nov 17.
Late last week, RSPO reportedly required SD Plantation to complete an action plan over the next six months to address the weaknesses identified in its existing systems and processes.
Its secretariat instructed SD Plantation to do this on Nov 14 following the completion of its independent verification assessment of the plantation's Malaysian operations.
RSPO had undertaken the assessment following the United States Customs and Border Protection's withhold release order on all palm oil and products containing palm oil produced by SD Pl;antation on Dec 30, 2020.
Helmy said SD Plantation's process regarding the retention of passports had been enhanced from the provision of communal personal lockers to provide secure individual lockers for all workers to store their personal documents, including passports.
In order to ensure the changes were institutionalised, he said the company had embarked on wide-scale continuous improvement efforts including regular trainings and awareness initiatives as well as verification exercises, among others.
"Through these changes, we believe we can address swiftly any isolated instances of forced labour that may occur in our operations," he added.