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Oral Answer by Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on non-Malaysian WPHs with salary claims

Employment practices Foreign manpower

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1663 OF 2019 FOR THE SITTING ON 08 MAY 2019

QUESTION NO. 2788 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang

To ask the Minister for Manpower for each year in the past five years for non-Malaysian work permit holders with salary claims, what is the number of cases whereby (i) the employer does not pay the full sum ordered by the Labour Court or Employment Claims Tribunal (ii) the security bond is invoked to repay the worker (iii) the Migrant Workers' Assistance Fund (MWAF) is used to repay the worker and (iv) both the security bond and MWAF are invoked.

Answer

  1. In the last 5 years, the Labour Court and the Employment Claims Tribunals issued an average of 130 money orders per year for salary claims involving non-Malaysian Work Permit Holders. In most cases, affected workers received full payments from their employers or settlement payments through insurers. In about 10% of the cases, the Migrant Workers’ Centre stepped in to provide assistance to the workers via the Migrant Workers’ Assistance Fund (MWAF).
  2. Employers are required to furnish a security bond (SB) for non-Malaysian Work Permit Holders whom they wish to employ. In the last 5 years, the Government forfeited an average of 150 SBs annually for workers with salary claims due to reasons such as non-payment of salary or failure to repatriate the workers. The MWAF is funded through donations from the public, which is matched by Government funding, rather than through forfeiture of SBs which can vary greatly from year to year.
  3. All workers, local or foreign, should come forward when they face salary issues. The evidence shows clearly that early reporting greatly improves the chances of recovering the owed salaries fully from the employers.