Check on foreign staff records

Monday October 22, 2007

PUTRAJAYA: A nationwide check on company records of foreign workers by the Labour Department will start next month in view of the spate of problems involving them over the years.

The records should be complete with the names of the employees, their travel document particulars and the salaries they are drawing, including the hours of overtime they had recorded every month.

Those failing to have complete data or found to be exploiting their foreign workers could be fined RM10,000 for each worker as provided for under the Employment Act 1955.

The number of enforcement officers from the department will also be increased by 50% to ensure comprehensive checks are conducted in all states in the peninsula, department director-general Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahim told The Star here yesterday.

There are about 500,000 employers. Of the number, about 100,000 employ foreigners in various industries, including manufacturing, cleaning, services and plantation.

Outsourcing companies, numbering some 300, would also be part of the operation, he said, adding that only 70% were registered with the department.

Ismail advised all employers to buy a copy of the Employment Act to ensure they did not commit offences.
Under the Act, employers must have a register of their foreign workers and provide their particulars to the department within 14 days of their arrival in the country.

He added that the foreign worker, whose salary should be the same as those paid to locals, should be given a copy of the contract signed between employer and employee.

However, he said, there was no minimum wage stipulated in the law.
On the 779 Bangladeshis from four textile factories in Johor who boarded 27 buses to Kuala Lumpur in protest on Oct 9, Ismail said they did not have a copy of the employment contract on them and they could not prove that they were to have received a monthly salary of RM1,200.

“The company records and the contract produced by the employer showed their salary was fixed at RM18 per day for 26 days per month, which amounts to less than RM500,” he said.

“We can take action against the employer in the Labour Court provided we have the evidence, and if all their claims are refuted by the employer with proof, there is no case,” he said, believing that the workers had been cheated by the Bangladeshi agents.

Ismail said that a full report would be submitted to him next week. 

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/?file=%2f2007%2f10%2f22%2fnation%2f19217614
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