PETALING JAYA: The labour department will probe the former employer of Safiudeen Pakkeer Mohamed, a migrant worker who made headlines after a video clip of him being humiliated outside a local bank went viral.
“We have opened an investigation paper under the Employment Act 1955 and Minimum Standards of Housing, Accommodation and Employee Facilities Act 1990 (Act 446),” the department told FMT in a statement.
The Employment Act 1955 sets the minimum standards for wages, working hours, leave and workplace safety.
Act 446 spells out the requirements and regulations that must be followed by employers when providing housing, accommodation and facilities for employees.
Recently, a video showing Safiudeen being hosed down and kicked outside a bank had sparked outrage on social media.
The clip showed a security guard spraying him with water, before another man kicked him, threw his belongings, and splashed him with water again.
Safiudeen later told FMT that prior to the incident he had taken up a job with a restaurant in Sri Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, where he earned a modest wage as a cook.
However, his employer withheld his passport and his wages, sometimes for months, Safiudeen claimed.
He said in March this year, his wages were reduced when the employer deducted his salary, once up to RM1,800, claiming it was for the renewal of his work permit.
After he stopped going to work, he had nowhere to go and had to seek shelter from friends, until they eventually closed their doors to him, forcing him to sleep on the five-foot-way.
The labour department also confirmed that Safiudeen’s former employer had paid the wages owed and had also borne the cost of his flight ticket back to his home state of Tamil Nadu in India.
“We have resolved the case,” it said.
Safiudeen is scheduled to leave for India tonight.
