115 Bangladeshis denied 8 months' pay in Malaysia
Tawfique Ali
One hundred and fifteen Bangladeshi workers in Sitiawan state of Malaysia are in dire straits as their Port Dickson-based employer, Linsun (M), has been withholding their eight months' wages for long, violating even a Labour Office directive. Linsun owes the Bangladeshi expatriates Tk 1.3 crore (Malaysian ringgit 839,936) in arrears from June 2002 to January 2003. On February 5 last year, Sitiawan Labour Office ordered the company to pay the labourers their dues by March 1, according to local media. "The workers, many of whom are jobless, have since been living a precarious life on borrowed money and staying with friends in crammed places," says Habibur Rahman, a cousin of a victim. "They had to abandon their own quarters failing to pay rent and utility bills." A New Straits Times report on December 17, 2003 said: "While some workers managed employment elsewhere, others were jobless finding it difficult to survive." The report quoted two of the workers, Monirul Islam Ramjan, 32, and Abul Bashar Abdul Ghani, 45. "It [the company] should have paid us in March 2003. But none of us has received a single sen to date," the report quoted Monirul as saying. Secretary of Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Dalil Uddin Mandal said: "I'll talk to the Bangladesh mission in Kuala Lumpur about it right now and ask the office to look into the matter." If a contractor is found to have done any wrong to the Bangladeshi workers, the wing concerned at the high commission will seek redress from the labour court according to Malaysian laws, the secretary said. It will also provide legal aid, if required, he added. Admitting that such incidents occur quite often, Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) Ali Haider Chowdhury said, "There're bad employers everywhere." "If any Baira recruiting agent is found guilty of such a malpractice, we ask it to compensate the victims. And on non-compliance, the agent has to face organisational punitive action," Ali said. But, he noted the ministry concerned was the most competent authority to help out any expatriate worker in distress. According to the Times, the workers also brought the matter to the attention of Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur. Another daily, the Berita Harian, in its December 20, 2003 issue quoted Monirul as saying that, facing such hardship, everyone of them had to borrow money from friends to survive and renew work permits and visas, as otherwise they might be driven out of the country. The case is presently under trial at a court in Ipoh, Malaysia.
| 
