Unlicensed recruitment agencies can face jail time

 

The Department of Labour Peninsular Malaysia (JTKSM) will take action against any company that carries out migrant recruitment and placement activities without a Private Employment Agency (APS) registration.

Speaking to Malaysiakini a JTKSM senior officer said, upon conviction, they would be liable to a fine not exceeding RM200,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both.

Quoting Section 7 of the Private Employment Agencies Act 1981, he explained that it was a serious offence to carry out any recruitment activity without an APS license.

To step up enforcement, the officer who declined to be named appealed to the public to come forward with information on companies that carried out employee recruitment activities of locals or migrants, without a license.

Malaysiakini sighted a sample APS identification card that was compulsory for licensees to display on themselves when carrying out recruitment activities, according to Section 13D(1) of the Act.

When asked, the officer recalled the recruitment agency whose practices of strip-searching and photographing domestic workers were reported in Malaysiakini on Jan 24.

He said the agency was based in Bangi and Dengkil and was no longer in operation.

“We believe they may have shuttered their business in late 2019,” he said.

However, he declined to disclose actions taken by JTKSM toward that recruitment agency.

Jail term for other offences

Section 21 of the Act grants the JTKSM director general (DG) and any authorised labour officer with all the powers of a police officer to carry out enforcement, inspection and investigations.

Meanwhile, Section 28 of the Act criminalised the intentional falsification of information to job seekers or migrant workers’ employers with a jail term not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or both.

This applied to APS licensees and non-licensees who contravened this or any provision of the Act and any of its subsidiary legislation.

The Act also states that APS who transferred their license to any person without the approval of the DG could face imprisonment not longer than two years or a fine of RM100,000.

Similarly, for failing to obtain the DG’s approval to carry out recruitment activities at a new branch office or even failing to inform the DG of their plans to cease operations and advertise those intentions as stipulated, APS could be sentenced to three and two years in jail, respectively, and or fined. - Mkini