Still no Socso for 40% Sabah migrant workers as deadline looms

Employers have been given until Dec 31 to register their foreign workers under Socso. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: Some 40% of about 140,000 migrants hired in Sabah are not registered with the Social Security Organisation (Socso), said Deputy Human Resource Minister Mahfuz Omar, today.

“To date, there are around 1.01 million foreign workers registered with Socso and from Sabah, there are 78,952 migrants registered with us,” said the minister after launching the Sabah Perkeso Christmas Day celebrations at a five-star hotel here.

The government has given employers a cooling-off period ending Dec 31 to register their foreign workers under Socso.

Those failing to do so could be jailed two years or fined RM10,000.

Meanwhile, Mahfuz said as of October, Perkeso paid out RM1.32 million in benefits to foreign workers nationwide involving 775 cases.

Socso had introduced schemes for migrant workers namely, the Employment Injury Scheme for Foreign Workers and the Workers Compensation Scheme. - FMT