Labour Dept starts ‘Ops Gaji Raya’

KOTA KINABALU: The State Labour Department yesterday reminded employers in the state to pay their workers’ salaries on time, that is, the latest being the seventh of every month.

Its director, Kamal Pardi, said employers must also abide by the RM920 minimum wage enforced in Sabah.

“The department is conducting an ‘Ops Gaji Raya’ statewide simultaneously today to ensure that employers have paid their workers their salary for the month of May, which should have been done at the latest, yesterday, in accordance with the Sabah Labour Ordinance.

“This is important as we all know, next week we’ll be celebrating Hari Raya. So we want to make sure that the workers especially Muslims, get paid and can celebrate; we also want to ensure that nonMuslims duly received their salary,” he told reporters after an operation in Inanam near here yesterday.

He warned that errant employers could be prosecuted under Section 108 of the Sabah Labour Ordinance, which provides for a fine of up to RM10,000, on conviction.

Meanwhile, he said the Ops Gaji Raya involved 15 branch offices with a workforce of 55.

In another development, Kamal said the department conducted 7,900 inspections statewide last year and 2,400 in the first quarter of this year.

“This is where we could identify employers who did not follow the rules; we either impose a compound or bring them to court.

“We opened 260 investigation papers last year and 55 in the first quarter of this year,” he added.