This has been confirmed by both Felda chairman Shahrir Samad and the foundation’s chairman Manan Ismail. Shahrir told the ST it was part of a restructuring exercise.
Felda, which is struggling with a corruption scandal and an underperforming listed arm, announced on Nov 29 to the management of Yayasan Felda that most of its 68 employees would be laid off by the end of the year, the report added.
The ST report said while the number of those losing their jobs might seem small, the drastic move reflected how Felda – a hallowed name among Malaysian Malays due to its history of alleviating poverty in the community – needed to take painful steps to rebound from its current problems.
The foundation, which has an annual budget of RM10 million, manages Felda’s colleges, a dialysis centre and charities for plantation settlers’ and their families.
Shahrir told the ST when it contacted him by phone: “It’s to restructure Yayasan Felda in line with other equivalent foundations.”
According to the ST report, the foundation’s CEO Emel Faizal Mohd Mokhtar is paid RM54,000 a month. He was appointed to the post in 2011.
“We are not discontinuing Yayasan Felda but of course we need to restructure it,” Shahrir was quoted as saying.
The report quoted a management-level source as saying Yayasan Felda’s 68 employees would either have their jobs terminated, opt for voluntary resignation or take a pay cut. An official letter is expected to be issued this week.
Manan told the ST:”We need to reduce the expenditure for the foundation and concentrate on providing more benefits to the settlers.”
Shahrir added: “It’s not a big foundation and yet we have a CEO who’s paid RM54,000 a month. It has to be streamlined. At RM54,000, I think it’s a bit too much”.
A new salary scheme will come into place next year, if any of the 24 permanent staff chooses to stay on the job. Those who decide to leave will receive severance.
Manan said Felda would decide in mid-December on how many of the staff would be retained.
Felda’s former chairman Isa Samad lost the job in January and is facing a corruption probe into millions of dollars allegedly spent on buying overseas and local hotels at inflated prices.
Felda’s listed entity, Felda Global Ventures (FGV), specialising in palm oil production, has performed poorly on the stock exchange since its listing in 2012.
This, the ST report added, had led Prime Minister Najib Razak to “bail out thousands of Malay Felda farmers” who had borrowed money to buy FGV shares.