The Malaysian government has initiated legal action against a rubber glove making company for withholding the salaries of its workers from Bangladesh and Nepal.
The move has been taken following a three-day strike by 2,000 workers earlier this week, Malay Mail reported on Thursday.
Malaysian Human Resources Ministry announced that the government would take WRP Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd to court for withholding the salaries of its workers, according to the report.
The ministry said the Sepang-based glove manufacturer was found to have withheld the salaries for its migrant work staff since November last year.
The company will still have to face legal action even after it agreed last Tuesday to pay the workers their three months' salaries falling due, the ministry added in a statement.
"This is to make sure the incident does not repeat itself and to serve as a reminder to other employers as well," it said.
The ministry said the labour department initiated legal action against the rubber glove maker. However, they did not specify what the charges or the offences would be.
After the strike, the ministry said it had a meeting with the company and the Bangladesh and Nepal embassies where an agreement was reached on a payment schedule that would see WRP workers receive their monthly salaries and overtime claims paid on time again from Friday, the Malay Mail report said.
It said that the payment for wages for November 2018 started on January 28 while overtime was paid on January 29. December's wages would be paid latest by February 1 while overtime would be paid by February 15 and January's pay and overtime would be paid on February 28.
On January 29, it was reported that some 2,000 Nepali workers were on strike at the company's factory in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi in Sepang.
After investigation, the company was found to have committed labour offences including not paying workers' wages for three months, not paying overtime, unfair pay cuts and wrongful working hours during break and public holidays.
The three-day strike ended on the same day after the company agreed to pay the outstanding wages.
The issue first came to light in early December when UK-based The Guardian reported that thousands of Nepalese and Bangladeshi workers were allegedly indentured at two Malaysian rubber glove factories with forced overtime, debt bondage, withheld wages and passport confiscation.
