S’wak Labour Dept wants newspapers to help check dubious ad on job vacancies
KUCHING: The Sarawak Labour Department wants media companies, especially newspapers, to assist them in spotting dubious job vacancy advertisement to ensure cases of local people being duped while seeking better pastures outside Sarawak do not happen again.
Its deputy director Sulaiman Ismail said this in response to recent cases of Sarawakians falling victims to non- existent employment opportunities abroad.
“We hope that media companies can work closely together with us on this,” he said at a media briefing held at their office in Bangunan Sultan Iskandar, Jalan Simpang Tiga here yesterday.
Sulaiman said based on their experience, unlicensed employment agencies had been promoting job vacancies via local newspapers with intent to cheat the people, especially those from poor background in the rural areas.
“While the authorities are responsible to investigate and ensure such scams do not occur, we ( Labour Dept) shoulder a fair share of responsibility in the fight against scam. We are taking precautionary measures by engaging the media in making sure that employment agencies that advertise job vacancies in their newspapers are licensed agencies,” he said
A licence is classified into three categories, namely, A, B and C and an guarantee fees of RM50,000, RM100,000 and RM250,000 respectively, have to be paid upfront by the employment agencies.
“This is to ensure that if any worker is being duped or mistreated in the jobs by the licensed employment agencies, the department can seek compensation for the worker through the guarantee fees.”
Licensed employment agencies have the words ‘Agensi Pekerjaan’ in front of their company name, and end with ‘Sdn Bhd’ while the full address and person-in- charge of the employment agencies must be stated clearly in the advertisement.
Furthermore, awareness programmes on job advertisements are being conducted throughout Sarawak by the department to educate the younger generation on the dangers of scams.
When in doubts, members of the public may refer to the latest list of active and licensed private employment agencies in Sarawak at Sarawak Labour Department website at http://www.jtkswk.gov. my.