Devise way to compensate migrant workers injured before Socso scheme, says timber union

KUALA LUMPUR: It has been almost one year since Krishna (not his real name) lost his hand in an accident at a factory where he works.

However, the 39-year-old Nepali – who has been in Malaysia for four-and-a-half years – has yet to receive the insurance payout due to him.

While his employers for applied for compensation from the insurance provider, the company's human resources manager allegedly absconded with RM17,000 that was rightfully Krishna's.

"I didn't even get RM1. I don't know what to feel," said Krishna who has two young children back home in Nepal.

Krishna is still working with the company, although in a different role.

He was given two months medical leave after his tragic accident – where his right hand was caught in a machine while sawing a piece of wood.

He is due to go to back to Nepal in November when his work visa expires. He has made a police report about his missing compensation but there is little chance of any positive outcome.

Krishna's case is just one of many faced by foreign workers who come to Malaysia for a better life.

In a report released on Sunday (April 28), Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) uncovered at least eight fatalities and twenty major injury cases involving Nepali migrant workers in 2017 and 2018 where they or their family members were not compensated.

The report looks at the problems of migrant worker fatalities, weaknesses in legal protection for these workers, and documents fatalities and injuries where workers and their families did not receive compensation.

Timber Employees Union of Peninsula Malaysia (TEUPM) secretary-general Nor Azlan Yaacob said the government must develop a programme to compensate migrant workers or their families who do not fall within the protection of the Social Security (Socso) Employment Injury Scheme (EIS) that came into effect in January this year.

"Some employers give all sorts of reasons not to pay compensation. This is very unfair and tarnishes the name of the country," he told a press conference Sunday after the launch of the BWI report.

From January, employers who hire foreign workers with valid documents, including expatriates, must register their employees with Socso and contribute to the Employment Injury Scheme (EIS) under the Employees' Social Security Act 1969.

Under the EIS, these include medical benefits, temporary disablement benefits, permanent disablement benefits, constant-attendance allowance, dependants' and rehabilitation benefits, as well as RM6,500 in repatriation and funereal costs.

Previously, migrant workers fell under the Workmen's Compensation Act (WCA), where workers were covered under insurance.

With the EIS, Socso will pay the workers directly, unlike insurance coverage previously which had to go through employers, said Nur Azlan.

Malaysia imports labour from Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka.

They work in the manufacturing, construction, plantation, agricultural, domestic help and services sectors.

There are an estimated 1.7 million documented foreign workers in Malaysia.