TAPAH, April 10 — The Human Resources Ministry (KSM) will launch an e-wages system in the near future to ensure that all workers in the country, including foreign workers, are paid their salaries and wages as promised by employers.

Its minister, Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said his team had held a meeting with the Home Ministry (KDN) to fine-tune the system which was currently in the final stages before it could be implemented.

"With the use of this system, it is expected to regulate employers who do not pay or are late in paying salaries to employees in all sectors which is often an issue in the country.

"When we practice the e-wages system, we will get early information if employers, who are required to pay their employee salaries before the 7th of each month, do not pay (within the stipulated period),” he said.

Saravanan said this at a press conference after officiating the "Program Dermasiswa D’Sara Parlimen Tapah” and presenting Ramadan donations to mosques and suraus in the Tapah parliamentary constituency at the Tapah Sports Complex today.

He said this when commenting on the allegations that there were employers who lodged reports to the Immigration Department to conduct raids on their foreign workers as a way to avoid paying their workers’ salaries.

Saravanan also thanked the Home Ministry for agreeing to share the existing platform in the ministry to get preliminary information on whether the employers had paid the employees’ salaries before the employees themselves lodged a complaint.

"Although KSM is responsible for defending the fate of workers, whether they are locals or foreigners, we were previously hampered as we did not (have) access to evaluate (the issue) using the existing platform at the Home Ministry.

"With the agreement to share the platform, we will get early information when we begin the e-wages system. (With this in place) there is no need to wait for complaints from the employees because as soon as employers fail to pay, we will get information and we will take action,” he explained.

Meanwhile, commenting on the programme, Saravanan, who is also Tapah MP, said a total of 100 Standard Four students were selected to participate in the aid programme which will fund their school fees as well as various expenses involving education up to Form Five.

"All these expenses will be borne by Pertubuhan Pendidikan Anak Tapah, which is an effort to produce excellent students in the Tapah constituency, which consists of the B40 (Bottom 40/lower income) group,” he said, adding that he hoped the programme could be expanded to other parliamentary constituencies with the help of the Education Ministry.

In the same programme, a total of 16 mosques also received an allocation of RM4,000 each while 79 suraus received RM1,800 each in the Tapah constituency. — Bernama