Workers Claim Company Owes Them 8 Months of Wages
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Six employees of a multinational cosmetics company in Perak demanded that their wages, which had been unpaid for eight months, be paid.
Unpaid for eight months
M. Kulasegaran, an Ipoh Barat MP who is also the workers' lawyer, claims that the corporation must pay RM9,600 for each worker.
He said that the workers had not been paid for eight months, and their last salary was RM1,200. He added that all of the workers are from the B40 socioeconomic category, and they are responsible for their families and dependents.
"How are they going to make ends meet if they don't get paid?" he said when approached by reporters outside of Ipoh Department of Labour yesterday.
He said that the firm also neglected to pay for the workers' Social Security Organisation (Socso) and Employment Provident Fund (EPF) contributions for the last two years, even though it deducted these contributions from their paychecks.
The workers claimed that they have not received their wages for eight months.
Report filed with the Labour Department
He stated that they had filed a report with the Labour Department in order to investigate and take urgent action against the company.
Since a foreigner runs the company, they were concerned that the owner would close it and disappear without paying the employees' salaries.
Kulasegaran remarked there had been a lot of examples such as this around the country, making it a major problem.
He asked the Ministry of Human Resources to be more aggressive in delivering skilling, reskilling, up-skilling, and cross-skilling courses to all workers in the country.
He said that this situation happened because the six employees were not given a chance to participate in these programmes, which is why the government should provide workers with incentives and subsidies so they will be able to join.
Kulasegaran said that, on average, only 60% of students enrol in the Industrial Training Institute across the country.
"When people have skills, they may readily hunt for new jobs."
Not the first time
Manimekalai Sinnashanmugam, 49, a 16-year employee at the company, claimed this is not the first time it has neglected to pay their salaries.
"We've had a wage problem for a long time.
"Sometimes they may postpone payment for two months, and other times they will pay in instalments," she explained.
Another employee, M. Krishnaveni, 50, claimed that when they asked for their salaries, the company's administration employees asked them to leave.
"Whenever we ask for our pay, they say the owner can't be reached and ask us to go," she said.
She also stated that her spouse was involved in an accident and that she is the family's lone breadwinner.
Another employee, Rozita Mohd Noor, 53, stated that they owe money on their homes and cars.
"All the time, the moratorium and i-Sinar help were keeping us afloat. However, we are now cash-strapped. All of our wages should be settled by the firm," she noted.
Source: Malay Mail