More than 100 Indian workers, most of them from Tamil Nadu, are camping outside the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur to protest alleged non-payment of back wages by their Malaysian employer.
The 130 electronics factory workers descended on the High Commission with their luggage on Wednesday night and refused to leave until they were paid their back wages and air tickets to return to Chennai.
Their passports are in the custody of their factory management, a standard procedure in Malaysia applied to foreign workers.
According to the workers, they were promised a salary starting 700 ringett (Rs 8000) a month but on arrival were paid only 80 ringett. They are demanding the salary they were promised.
"After talking to the workers last night, we immediately summoned the employer from the southern state of Johor and asked him to come to Kuala Lumpur without any preconditions," Deputy High Commissoner of India Sanjay Panda told PTI .
He said the High Commission then tried to contact the agent in Chennai who had found the workers the job in Malaysia.
After failing to contact him, the High Commission sought the help of the Protector of Immigrants in Chennai who traced the agent in Singapore. The agent too has been summoned, though he has not yet reached here, Panda added.
Panda said after talking to a representative of the agent on Thursday, the High Commission had blacklisted the company.
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