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 em-ployees 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.
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