JOHOR BARU, Aug 28 — Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin today reminded employers in Johor to always comply with labour laws and not ignore workers’ rights.
He said employers should maintain industrial harmony so as to avert undesirable incidents such as riots by their workers.
“In the present era, most workers, including migrant workers, are concerned about their welfare. They seek industrial harmony. If this is not maintained, it can lead to incidents such as riots,” he told reporters after opening a forum for Johor exporters organised by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) here.
Mohamed Khaled was commenting on the riot by migrant workers at a factory producing hard disk drive components in the Kelapa Sawit Industrial Park near Kulaijaya last Monday.
He said he believed that there must have been certain reasons that triggered the workers to riot.
“I do not know the cause of the riot but there must be a reason for it.
Nevertheless, the workers cannot take the law into their own hands,” he said.
In the incident, about 800 migrant workers staged a strike at about 9 am and then torched the car of a factory manager and damaged parts of the factory building, apparently over dissatisfaction with the employer for having allegedly ignored their welfare.
Seventy-five members of the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and 50 policemen from the Kulaijaya district police headquarters were sent to the factory to control the situation.
The police have detained 42 Nepali workers to help in the investigation into the incident. — Bernama
