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Currently unemployed and penniless, their futures remain shrouded in uncertainty despite a recent mediation where Kawaguchi agreed to settle the overdue salaries sometime next year, beginning with RM1,000 on Jan 15.
One of the workers, known as Farouk, 37, said they were having sleepless nights, citing trust issues from past experiences. They fear they might not be paid at all.
“And our situation will worsen if the labour office fails to get us new jobs before the fasting month,” he told FMT.
Farouk said they were currently surviving on meals sponsored by Daikin Industries Ltd.
However, the US$12,000 donated by the air-conditioner manufacturer was only sufficient to buy food until Dec 29, he said.
Another worker, Mohosin, said the RM1,000 he expects to receive next month would be used to settle the debt he had with a sundry shop located near their hostel.
For the past seven months, Mohosin said he and other foreign workers had bought food and necessities from sundry stores on credit and had promised to pay the shopkeepers back by this month, having believed that their pay would come in by then.
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As the money did not come, the shops had stopped allowing them to buy on credit, he claimed.
Some of these workers FMT spoke to owe the shopkeepers at least RM500.
Mohosin said once they had settled their debts with the sundry shops, they would be able to send money to their families back home in Bangladesh.
“Our families have to resort to taking loans to survive. Hopefully, once we get a new job, we will be able to clear the loans,” the 38-year-old said.
Another worker, known as Nayem, 23, had mortgaged his family’s house to apply for a RM20,000 loan to come and work in Malaysia last year, with a huge chunk of the sum used to pay the agent there.
Time is running out for him as he’s unable to service the loan and help his family.
“I am the eldest of five siblings and they all rely on me to feed them. Usually, I would send my entire month’s salary and survive on overtime pay.”
Nayem is now worried that the bank will seize his house in Bangladesh and evict his family.
“Every day, I wait for some good news: that we will get a new job so that I can pay the loan and help my family.”
Last Thursday, it was reported that Kawaguchi had agreed to pay its 251 foreign employees overdue salaries for seven months.
The company reached the decision five days after the workers held a peaceful protest outside the factory in Port Klang to demand the salaries owed to them.
They had complained about unpaid wages totalling more than RM3 million since May.
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