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PETALING JAYA: Law enforcement officers were shocked by the poor living conditions of foreign workers in a shelter owned by a furniture factory in Jalan Ayer Manis, near Muar, today.
The director of the Legal and Compliance Division of the Peninsular Malaysia Department of Labor (JTK), Zaini Yaacob, said that the place was packed, with workers huddled like sardines inside, according to a report from Bernama.
He said 321 foreign workers were staying at the shelter. Most of them were from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
“The hostel was very badly run. Most of the toilets were clogged or unusable, ”Zaini said.
He said his inspection found that the hostel, which was previously a factory, did not have an accommodation certificate from the JTK, much less approval from the local authority.
Zaini said workers slept in thin plywood bunk beds, like stacked boxes, without mattresses.
The inspection was carried out jointly with the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, the Ministry of the Interior and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). Johor JTK Director Nasir Kassim was also present.
On December 3, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan told Dewan Rakyat that more than 90% of the accommodation of foreign workers provided by their employers in the country did not comply with the Minimum Standards of Housing and Services for Workers Act. of 1990 or Law 446.
This affected a total of 1.4 million workers.
Saravanan said that, as of October 30, the government had only received applications for the accommodation certificate involving 143,587, or 8.89%, of the 1.6 million foreign workers in the country.
Zaini urged the country’s employers to comply with the requirements established in Law 446 to provide comfortable accommodation to their foreign workers, especially in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that the government will not commit to any employer that ignores or does not comply with the requirements and specifications of Law 446.
“On the one hand, the employer will be subject to legal action under Section 24D (1) of Law 446 for not having a certificate of accommodation.”
For providing substandard or congested accommodation, the employer can be fined up to RM50,000 or imprisoned for no more than one year, or both.
