Employers should not be allowed to recover levy paid from worker's wages..

LEVY - It should be the Employers of foreign migrant workers that should be paying this levy.

It is SO WRONG for Malaysian Government to allow Employers to deduct this levy from the wages of the foreign workers.

Annual levy is, I believe, RM3,600 for restaurant workers. If their wages is RM500, this means more than 7 months wages just go towards paying levy. Then what - employers also deduct their annual medical check-up fee....and other expenses in bringing the worker to Malaysia (plus also the airfare for their return) - end result. There may be no wages left for the worker...and this is so wrong...Oh yes, they do need to buy food, etc...also

Workers should be entitled to their wages - paid to them every month.

Maximum deduction per month according to Malaysian law is 50% of wages..

(8) The total of any amounts deducted under this section from the wages of an employee in respect of any one month shall not exceed fifty per centum of the wages earned by that employee in that month. - Section 24, EMPLOYMENT ACT 1955

Maximum amount that can be advanced by an employer to a worker is equivalent to 1 month's wages only.

Deduction from wages should be only for things like social security contributions (SOCSO/Perkeso), savings for old age schemes (like EPF/KWSP), maybe taxes that the worker has to pay - and nothing else. See earlier post,Levy, Air Fare,...cannot be deducted from Migrant Worker's wages..it is LAW.

Present policy of Malaysian government seem to be ANTI-local worker. It is cheaper and less troublesome for Employers to employ foreign migrant workers - and this is why all Workers, including Malaysian workers must oppose this practice that allows employers to deduct from worker's wages all that they, the employer, have spent (or most of it) .

In early April 2009, the Malaysian government finally got it right - and did what was right and just for workers...

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) today called on the government to beef up the enforcement unit of the Manpower Department to ensure the successful implementation of its new policy on levy for foreign workers.

Its president, Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud, said the department had only about 500 officers now and this was not enough to keep tabs on the thousands of employers throughout the country.

"We do not expect them to visit all employers, as it would be impossible, but at least they should do a systematic random check so that the policy is adhered to," he told Bernama.

Under the new policy which came into effect yesterday, employers in all sectors will now have to pay the levy, following the revocation of the earlier policy which allowed them to deduct the levy from the monthly wages of their employees. - Bernama, 2/4/2009, Beef Up Enforcement On Foreign Workers Levy, Says MTUC

But alas, by mid-April 2009, the Malaysian government backtracked...and went back to doing great injustice to workers...

Employers are now allowed, again, to deduct the cost of the levy from the wages of the their foreign workers until the expiry of their present visas, Labour Director-General Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahim said Thursday.

Employers had been stopped from making that deduction from April 1. Making them bear the cost made them unhappy as it upset their budget.

The directive was, therefore, reversed by the Human Resources Minister Datuk S. Subramaniam Thursday following numerous appeals by employers, Ismail told Bernama.

However, Ismail explained that no deduction would be allowed for new employees registered after April 1 in line with the government's policy requiring employers from all sectors to bear the full cost of the levy from that cutoff date.

The rationale behind getting employers to bear the levy was to discourage them from employing foreigners, he said. - Bernama, - Star, 16/4/2009 - Employers can deduct levy from wages, again

Note, that there will no more deductions with regard to NEW foreign migrant workers, i.e. those employed after 1/4/2009, and this is GOOD.

But, for those employed before this, the unjust practice of worker's wages being deducted for employers to recover the levy they had to pay continues...and this is so wrong.

Guess what - only certain employers of foreign migrant workers were allowed to recover the levy they paid from the wages of their worker, and not all employers. Discrimination...why?

See earlier post:- To keep roti canai prices down - let employers deduct levy they pay from workers wages?