Employers who want to employ foreign workers are required to pay a levy.According to the Malaysian government...
The rationale behind getting employers to bear the levy was to discourage them from employing foreigners.... - Bernama, - Star, 16/4/2009
But then the government gave special permission to some (not all) employers to deduct the wages of their migrant workers to recover the levy these employers paid to be allowed to employ the migrant worker. This was a great injustice.
If the government wanted to help some employers, then the government should have just not required these employers to pay the said levy. It is wrong to allow these employers to recover the monies expended by deducting worker's wages.
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has called on the Labour Department to prosecute employers who continue to deduct levy from salaries of their foreign workers.
According to MTUC vice-president A. Balasubramaniam hundreds of workers have been “cheated ” by errant employers who continue to deduct the levy from their salaries although they have renewed their work permits after April 1, the date from which the levy was to be entirely borne by employers.
Prior to this, employers were allowed to pay the levy up front and later make monthly deductions from their workers’ salaries.
Balasubramaniam said that last week, about 2,500 foreign workers at a glove-making factory in Klang staged a five hour “strike” in protest against the management’s deduction of the levy from their salaries.
Similar complaints were also received from various parts of the country, he said.
Labour Department director-general Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahim, meanwhile, said that his department was continuing to be vigilant and was conducting checks on all establishments to ensure that there were no illegal levy deductions.
He said that employers were allowed to continue making deductions for workers who were employed prior to April 1, but this was only until the expiry of the work permits.
For all renewals and new employees after April 1, the employers should pay for the levy, he added.
He advised workers whose levy was still being deducted after the renewal of their permits to report the matter to the labour office.
The levy, paid annually, varies from sector to sector, with RM1,200 per foreign worker for the manufacturing and construction sectors, RM1,800 for restaurant and RM360 for maids. – Bernama - Star, 26/10/2009, Prosecute errant employers, urges MTUC
Apparently, it is fair that the levy should be borne by the employer in order to reduce the recruitment of the foreign workers. However, do you (the people who support this) think that the locals are willing to do what the works done by foreign workers now especially in construction sector and manufacturing sector where are dusty and heavy. Are they ready to work in long working hours.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, these foreign workers will benefit from this indirectly and they will remit more back to thier countries. By the time, Malaysia will face another problem that more monies flow out from our country.
The government should not burden the employers at his hard time now. The government can implement subsidy scheme for those employer who employed locals instead of imposed / increased burden on those employers of foreign workers by benefited the foreign workers.