BY JAY WATSON
KUCHING: A total of 222 employers throughout Sarawak have failed to comply with the government’s minimum wage policy set last year.
Sarawak Labour Department director Awang Raduan Awang Omar said most of the errant employers owned business premises in remote areas.
“In addition, they gave an excuse of not having any information about the policy.
“We have already disseminated information on the policy to all employers in the state through websites and radio broadcasts in various local languages,” he said at a press conference at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar, Jalan Simpang Tiga here, and yesterday.
Further elaborating, he added that the department also opened 101 investigation papers from 2015 until December last year on employers who failed to comply with the policy.
“Out of that number, 29 cases have been brought to court resulting in 24 being convicted, 38 cases were resolved and 34 are still under investigation.
“A sum of RM194,203.57 in fines has been issued to errant employers,” he explained.
With the nation now implementing the Minimum Wage Order 2020, Awang Raduan stressed that employers who failed to comply with the order were liable to be fined not more than RM10,000 per worker.
Hence, he called on all employers to take note and comply with the order, which came into effect this month.
The minimum wage in major cities and towns has been raised to RM1,200 while for the rest of the country, the minimum wage remains at RM1,100 a month.
The places in Sarawak listed are Kuching North, Kuching South, Miri, Padawan, Sibu, Samarahan and Bintulu.
