ဂ်ိဳဟိုးမွျပန္ပို႕ခံရေသာ ျမန္မာအလုပ္သမားမ်ားေနာက္ဆံုးအေျခအေန

15th December 2008

I myself Tun Tun and Ko Latt went to TENAGANTIA NGO office at 9:30 in the morning and asking for some suggestions for the workers. Ms. Pusenthi P. Manaim , the programme officer replied us that everyone in their office was busy with its annual report. At that moment, they were not able to accept any new case until January 2009, they explained.

Therefore, myself and Ko Latt contacted Mr. Tian Chua for some help. Mr. Tian Chua suggested us to contact Mr. Din from Labour Resource Centre (LRC). Afterwards, at 3 pm, we visited LRC bringing three Burmese and three Nepalese migrant workers from Johor state together with us. After one hour discussing with Mr. Din regarding the problem between employees and employers, Mr. Din informed Mr. Syed Shahir, President of MTCU. Then Mr. Syed Shahir contacted and requested Mr. Mohan, Chief of MTCU from Johor state to provide necessary assistance for the migrant workers.

Then, the officer from Johor state labour department told us that on 16th December 2008, Mr. Subra Maniam, Minister of Human Resource Ministry had a schedule to meet with the employer who had problems with our fellow workers. The aim of the meeting was to discuss about Malaysian workers who losing their worker rights, he explained. However, the labour officer said in that meeting, he wasn't sure whether they will discuss about foreign migrant workers' issue. But, the labour told us that if the workers' representatives provide him with necessary information, he will pass that information to the Minister during the meeting.

At the moment, all workers are anxiously waiting for the outcome from that meeting. At the same time, the employer has stopped the workers to use their bank accounts. Previously, workers' wages were normally channeled through their bank accounts. The reason is that we have been informed that the employer was planning to buy the air tickets to send the workers back to their origin of country by using those workers' money. In reality, the employer has to pay for the air tickets from his money for the workers' return. We have heard that it was already arranged to send 40 Burmese migrant workers back to Burma on 16th December 2008 at 8 pm.

16th December 2008

Two Burmese and two Nepalese worker representatives went to the labour department in Johor Baruh and tried to inform Mr. Mohan the cases of migrant workers. Mr. Mohan told them to wait and they waited for quiet long time. Finally, the worker representatives tried directly to meet with the minister of Human Resource Ministry. Then, Mr. Abidin Olhman accepted them for a brief meeting and told them that labour officers will come to their factory and settle the problems between employer and employees. At 1 pm, all of the worker representatives went back to their factory.

While the worker representatives were in human resource office, the office manager took their photos as record and said that he has to send the photos to the police. It caused the worker representatives getting worry and they had to hide away from the factory for a short period. About 3 pm, the officers from labour office arrived at the factory and told the workers that workers' demands will not be met due to the global economic downturn. And for those workers whose work-permits are expired will be sent back to their origin of country, the officers said. Therefore, the officers told the workers to work regularly and save the money to buy the air tickets. After that the labour officers said they will continue to discuss everything details with three worker representatives on 17th December 2008.

At 8 pm, when night shift workers went into the factory, the factory manager told them that for those who didn't work on previous day didn't need to work again and workers went sent back to their hostel. At 11 pm, buses were ready to take those 40 workers to the airport. Some of those 40 workers have to receive their wages from previous working days, but they weren't paid.

Concerning this issue, Burma Campaign Malaysia (BCM) informed Mr. Din in detail. Mr. Din told us he will continue to inform Mr. Abdullah Sani, Member of Parliament from Kuala Langat constituency to be able to take necessary action.

END.