COVID-19 and the precarity of Indonesian workers in the oil palm production in Sabah, East Malaysia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only exposed but exacerbated migrant workers’ precariousness. While governmental lockdown measures were meant to curb the pandemic, some small- and medium-sized oil palm employers in Sabah, East Malaysia, took advantage of such measures by normalizing and justifying mobility restrictions and enhanced surveillance, prolonging irregularity and suppressing workers’ voice. As a result, migrant workers were rendered dependent on discretionary actions by employers who were often inclined to moralistic judgment by viewing migrants as less deserving of their rights and welfare. The restrictive labor regime points out that the government is partly responsible for exacerbating workers’ precariousness by using businesses or employers as a mechanism of control and by limiting migrant workers’ rights.