6
i.
Singapore
MFA member HOME (Singapore) handled 274 cases involving issues with the salary declared
on In-Principle Approval letters. Workers are offered a job with a significant monthly pay
reflected in the IPA. However, employers declare a different and much lower amount to the
Ministry of Manpower. MOM stated that it has received 560 false salary declaration
complaints every year over a five-year period between 2015 and 2019 and that it took
enforcement action against 950 employers for the same violation.13
j.
Malaysia
In Malaysia, American tire manufacturer Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GTO) is facing
accusations of unpaid wages, unlawful overtime, and threats to foreign workers at its
Malaysian factory, according to court documents and complaints filed by workers. Workers
were from Nepal, Myanmar, and India, and claimed $1.21 million in unpaid wages.
Malaysia’s Labour Department said that Goodyear had been accused and fined of similar
violations in 2020 as well as for wrongful salary deductions, excessive working hours and
denying workers full access to their passports. Courts ruled in favour of the foreign workers
and Goodyear was ordered to pay back wages and comply with the collective agreement.14
k. Countries like Kuwait and Bahrain which have relatively more vocal and well-organized civil
societies were able to better mobilize relief work within their own communities. In contrast,
countries like Saudi Arabia or Oman were almost impossible to navigate for grassroot
organizations and migrants alike. (Migrant-Rights.org, 2021)
With a dedicated website for Justice for Wage Theft (JWT) campaign, MFA members and
partners have been active in documenting cases of wage theft received by them and their
grassroot-level workers. The flagship report analysed the cases received in the documentation
system in the year 2020. It further detailed the different forms of wage theft as well as
difficulties with respect to collection and analysis of wage theft data. This report observed oneyear of the wage theft campaign, looking at overall cases from the inception of the campaign till
December 2021 and looked at ways forward for the campaign. It further intends to question
current temporary labour migration regimes and calls for a reform of the legal system.
13
24 May 2021. Kok Yufeng. Cases of false declaration of Singapore migrant workers' salaries rising, says
NGO
14
31 May 2021. EXCLUSIVE U.S. tyre maker Goodyear facesallegations of labour abuse in Malaysia. Mei
Mei Chu,A. Ananthalakshmi. Reuters
Disclaimer: The figures, statistics within the report are based upon the limited documentation of cases
submitted to the JFWT platform or separately to MFA. It does not intend to implicate any country,
government, industry, employer, etc.