50 pct complaints lodged involve employers disallowing work from home - Awang Hashim

PENDANG: Nearly half of all complaints received by the Human Resources Ministry through its 'Working for Workers' app since Feb 1 till last Sunday were regarding employers not allowing workers to work from home.

Its deputy minister, Datuk Awang Hashim said 2,292 complaints regarding the issue were lodged by workers, higher compared to other issues, including unpaid salaries or late salary payments (1,414 complaints) and unlawful pay cuts (462 complaints).

"We received 5,675 complaints from February through the app regarding employers who discriminate against worker rights and from the total, action has been taken against 4,105 complaints.

"We will continue operations to track such employers and will collaborate with related agencies and ministries to issue compounds and open investigation papers if it persists," he said, adding that it was not supposed to happen as the government launched the wage subsidy programme under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA), in which the government helped sustain workers' wages for employers.

A total of 806 investigation papers were opened under the Workers' Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities (Amendment) Act 2019 (Act 446) against employers for various offences in the period, he told reporters after providing food baskets for the Pendang parliamentary constituency today.

From that total, 130 cases have gone to court, involving fines of RM487,000 and 408 cases involved compounds totalling RM5,534,000.

"A total of 49 relocation orders were issued involving 49 employers and 2,930 workers. We, however, will investigate first by meeting up with employers to determine the veracity of the complaint and to see if we can reach a 'win-win situation'," he added.

-- BERNAMA