Office of Labour Affairs in Malaysia reports it has recently received complaints from two Thai workers about fake online job advertisement, and illegal recruitment.
The two Thai workers travelled to Malaysia to work as a masseuse at Kinaree, a massage parlor, located at Holiday Villa Hotel in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. The first worker said she came to work in Malaysia through an illegal job broker, “Khun Sa”, whom she knew from an online social network site. The job position was put online by Khun Sa and the worker contacted her via phone to get the detail of the employment.
According to the workers, Khun Sa said the parlor provided a salary of at least 25,000 baht for the position and would apply a work permit for a worker who wished to have one. She then agreed to take the job and travelled to meet Khun Sa at a furniture store located near a post office in Pawong Subdustrict of Songkhla Province’s Hat Yai District where they stayed overnight. She also paid Khun Sa a 4,500 baht commission fee. The two travelled to Malaysia together.
Once she got to work at Kinaree, her employer said she would be paid 18 Ringgit per hour, some 180 baht, which was low and different from what she was promised by the broker but she agreed to work. No meals were provided; she also had to shelter at the parlor. Sometimes she was asked to work in other location but she refused. The employer also took her passport. At one stage, she had an argument with her employer about her wage, where she ended up losing her job. She got her passport back but did not receive her salary. She, therefore, decided to seek aid from the Royal Thai Embassy. The Office of Labour already sent her back home. The second worker had also been sent to work at Kinaree by the same broker before she was transferred to work in Singapore where she ended up having the same fate as the first worker.
The Office of Labour Affairs in Malaysia has requested Ministry of Labour to suspend the sending of Thai workers to work at the parlor. Four other complaints in similar cases were made about the parlor by Thai worker who used to work there, according to the Office of Labour Affairs in Malaysia. It said such recruitment is illegal and workers who have gone through such a process would be regarded as an illegal worker. They would not only be able to claim any salary or benefit but they might also be at risk of being unfairly treated or prosecuted by Malaysian authorities.
To get permission to work in Malaysia and be legally recruited, the Office of Labour Affairs in Malaysia said a worker must receive a Calling Visa issued by Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs. Apparently Malaysian government has temporarily suspended the approval of Malaysian firms’ quota for masseur and masseuse since 22 January 2009. Work Permits which have been issued for Thai masseur and masseuse recently are those unused quotas by the Malaysian firms. Thai job-seekers can contact the Office of Labour Affairs to check more detail about the quota.
The Office of Labour Affairs wants Thai job-seekers to be cautious when applying for an oversea job online where they are often lured to work overseas, only to find out that there is no position available. Job-seekers, therefore, have to check the availability of the position and seek for supportive information — from the Department of Employment’s Thailand Oversea Employment Administration via phone at -2245-6712-3 or 0-2245-6714-5, or from Bangkok Employment Office or other provincial offices of employment, or from http://www.overseas.doe.go.th – before they decide to travel to work overseas.
An Illegal broker or a person who commits a likewise act without a permission is in violation of Employment and Job-Seeker Protection Act B.E. 2528 and is liable to imprisonment for three to 30 years, or a fine of 60,000 to 200,000 baht, or both.
