The main reason adduced for this is the abundance of cheap, hard-working and docile labour. By this they mean women workers of course. The exploitation of women in this sector in terms of their low wages, poor working conditions, instability of employment, absence of employment benefits and oppressive laws which deny women workers their rights to representation, unionisation and compensation has been well documented in the literature. This situation is also true in the plantation economy where women workers suffer double oppression and exploitation - working as coolies and labourers in the tea, rubber and oil palm plantations and working as beasts of burden for their other lord and master, the husband in the home. Plantation society is an enclosed atrophied society.
Workers here have almost no control over decisions affecting their lives.
Perhaps it is only a little better than the slave plantations during the first wave of colonial expansion in the New World. Hazards One of the most serious forms of exploitation that women workers face is the hazards they are exposed to in the workplace. These hazards not only threaten their health, but that of their unborn children if they are pregnant. Women workers face four types of work hazards - psychological, physical, biological and chemical hazards. The most serious psychological work hazard is stress and a major source of occupational stress is job dissatisfaction.