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PETALING JAYA: The MTUC has told Socso not to go ahead with its decision to impose new conditions that will limit access or deny scores of contributors from obtaining free dialysis treatment.
MTUC secretary-general J Solomon said the revised terms of eligibility would impact new contributors and beneficiaries registered under Socso’s Invalidity Pension, Employment Injury and Invalidity Grant schemes who suffer from chronic kidney failure.
In a statement, he said that under the revised conditions, eligibility for free dialysis was now tied to the applicant’s tenure and quantum of contribution to Socso.
“By tightening the eligibility criteria, Socso has restricted, and in some cases denied, contributors and beneficiaries with end-stage kidney failure from getting free dialysis treatment.”
Solomon said many of those undergoing dialysis could not afford the treatment.
“Socso’s move to shut the door to these marginalised workers is not only inhumane but contrary to one of its core values of ‘caring’, and the government’s aspiration to establish a fully caring society,” he said.
He said those hardest hit were new applicants to the Invalidity Grant scheme who would be denied free dialysis altogether as they would not meet the minimum revised conditions.
“Socso’s decision to limit or deny free dialysis treatment to new applicants is most cruel as it affects the destitute and often the poorest workers.
“For instance, contributors under the Invalidity Grant scheme are those who could not afford to remit monthly contributions to Socso regularly,” he said.
According to Solomon, the new conditions were listed in a circular dated Jan 17 sent to all Socso state directors and branch managers, and were to have taken effect on Jan 10.
He said it stated that the Socso board had approved the “proposed action plans to bridge the gap between Socso’s assets and liability and improve the fund’s sustainability”.
“MTUC sees this assets-liability mismatch and drastic cutback by Sosco as the direct consequence of its arbitrary use of workers’ and employers’ contributions to divert hundreds of millions of ringgit to questionable projects and buildings which have brought little or no returns over the years.
“Even the auditor-general in his latest report has observed that RM40 million has not been expanded for its intended purposes,” he said.
Source : https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/01/31/new-conditions-for-dialysis-cruel-mtuc-tells-socso/
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com