321 furniture workers found ‘packed like sardines’ at quarters in Muar

 

Director of the Legal and Enforcement Division of Labour Department of Peninsular Malaysia Zaini Yaacob inspecting the living conditions of workers working in furniture factory on Jalan Ayer Manis, Muar, today. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Enforcement officers were shocked to find the poor living conditions at a foreign workers’ hostel owned by a furniture factory on Jalan Ayer Manis, near Muar, today.

Director of the Legal and Enforcement Division of Labour Department of Peninsular Malaysia (JTK) Zaini Yaacob said the living conditions were “over-crowded” or workers were packed like sardines, according to a Bernama report.

He said 321 foreign workers were staying at the hostel. Most of them were from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

“The hostel was found to be very poorly managed, with clogged or unserviceable toilets,” Zaini said.

He said the initial investigation found that the hostel, which was formerly a factory, did not have a certificate of accommodation from the JTK, let alone an approval from the local authority.

“The hostel was more like a barn … with thin plywood bunk beds, much like boxes stacked in tiers, with no mattresses. This placed the workers in a very uncomfortable situation,” he said.

Also present during the operation, held together with the plantation industries and commodities ministry, home affairs ministry and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), was Johor JTK director Nasir Kassim.

On Dec 3, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan told the Dewan Rakyat that more than 90% of accommodation of foreign workers provided by their employers in the country did not comply with the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990, or Act 446.

This affected a total of 1.4 million workers.

Saravanan said, as of Oct 30, the government had only received applications for the certificate of accommodation involving 143,587, or 8.89%, of the 1.6 million foreign workers in the country.

Zaini urged employers in the country to comply with the requirements stated in Act 446 to provide comfortable accommodation to their foreign workers, especially in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the government will not compromise with any employer who ignored or failed to comply with the requirements and specifications of Act 446.

“For one, the employer will be subject to legal action under Section 24D (1) of Act 446 for not having a certificate of accommodation.”

For providing shoddy or congested accommodation, the employer can be fined up to RM50,000 or jailed for not more than one year, or both. - FMT