Malaysian High Court Rules in favour of Indian Workers

The High Court of Malaysia at Penang has ordered  payment of the promised salary along with overtime and other benefits to 52 Indian nationals working as manual labourers and recruited by a private agency.  Seeking justice, the Indians working under miserable conditions had appealed to the High Court complaining of violation of their terms of contract, the Dindigul-based Peace Trust, an NGO, has noted in a press release issued here.  It hailed the judgment as a victory for the large Indian community working under difficult conditions in Malaysia.

In a precedent-setting order, the court chided those responsible for the gross injustice meted out to the Indian workers and noted caustically, "This whole episode is a conspiracy by the Defendant Amarjeet Singh (a recruitment consultant) and Mithun (a recruitment agency) to cheat innocent workers who had mortgaged their lands pledged or sold their jewllerey and had signed promissory notes so that they could earn a fair and reasonable sum for their employment.  Instead, they had been cheated, degraded and denied food and basic amenities". Sampath Kumar Velllingiri and 51 others had set foot on the Malaysian soil with dollar dreams in their eyes.  But they had to reckon with an employer, Chin Well Fasteners Co Sdn Bhd, consultant Amarjeet and agent Mithun who colluded to defraud them of their money, taking advantage of their illiteracy.

Sampath, in his testimony, said he raised a sum of Rs.1 lakh to pay Mithun, the recruitment agency, for various expenses including medical check-up, visa, immigration, air-ticket and Malaysian Government's levy on immigration.  His compensation, he was told, would be Rs.10,000/- per month as basic salary plus overtime.  But all of these remained as oral agreement and no written contract was given to him before he left for Malaysia.

However, the terms of the contract submitted to the Government of India clearly stated that 100 workers were being hired on a basic monthly salary of RM 600 with overtime.  (One Malaysian Ringgit is equal to Rs 13 as per the current rates).  But when Sampath and his batchmates, along with workers from two other batches, received their first month salaries, they were in for a rude shock. Instead of the promised RM 750, they received only RM 350.  Worse, there was also a deduction towards the immigration levy, supposed to be paid by the employers themselves.  When they protested, the brusque put down they got was, " We do not know what your agent had promised you".  When the employees returned to work the next day, their punch cards were missing and were told they could return to work only if they signed another contract that specified their basic salary as RM 350 per month.  On October 16, 2002, they were further told the employer had decided to send them all back.  Again no termination letter was offered, and they were simply asked to pack up and leave.  It was then the workers registered a Police report.  

Bur more ordeal awaited them.  As they were daring their employers and refusing to leave the hostel, water and electricity supplies were cut-until the HC granted an injunction.  Considering the evidence, the judge said notwithstanding the fact that the plaintiffs had not signed any agreement, the very fact that they came on the representation of defendant's agent and the fact that the defendant's MD himself had signed the contract of employment, were sufficient grounds to hold that there indeed was a contract between the plaintiff and defendant.  He ordered that the complainants be paid the sum of Rs.10,000/- (RM 750) with relevant overtime payments.  Judge Kamalanathan Ratnam also said it was necessary for both governments to look into the recruitment procedures for manual workers more intently.