The One About Irresponsible Employers

These things are happening from time to time but the strange thing is, no one is speaking up about it. The worse part is, no one is actually doing anything about it. So if someone needs to spark this and get people to be aware of it, then here's the "it".

The company I worked for closed down more then 4 months ago without notice. Since they still owe me three months salary, I went to the labour law office to file a report. There, I was told that since the company closed down and there is no one to serve the legal documents to, I would need to head over to the company registration office to 'get' a copy of the list of company directors so that the legal letter can be served to them instead. It was when I went to the company registration office that I found out that apparently, I need to first BUY an access code (at RM10) and then BUY the copy I made (at RM5 per page). Isn't that a little overpriced?

Anyway, bringing that copy back to labour law, I was told to pick and choose which director I wanted to sue. First of all, I've never met any of them. Secondly, how do you determine who to sue? I just chose a random name out of the four listed and filed the complaint.

Three weeks later, I was called back to the labour law office. There, I was told that apparently the director I chose to file the legal letter at, is unreachable and I was told that there is nothing the labour law office could do about it. I was later told that apparently, the letter needed to be handed to this director person himself, and only he can sign and receive the letter. And since the letter cannot be sent to this person, I was told that I would have to track this person down myself in order to get my salary back! I don't even know this guy to begin with, and now I am supposed to track him down myself?!

As if that is not bad enough, I was told that in cases like this, the chances are quite slim of the employees getting their salary back. As "in most cases" the directors will just say that they've never met this employee before and refuse to pay the summon. So the question is: if the director is not responsible in such cases? Who is?! What makes a director? Seriously. What qualifies someone to be the director of a said company? What's their role in the company? What are their responsibility? Shouldn't the somebody be doing something about this? Enforcing something that would make company directors held responsible for the mess their company made?

I was later informed that in most cases, the company director will refuse to attend the labor court even after they are served the letter. And even when a legal letter is issued by the labor court to pay a said amount, most company directors would still refuse to pay. At that time, the employee who filed the case would have to take it to the civil court, and even then, the director could refuse to pay. And I was told that this might go on for years. I was even advised to drop the case if I already have a new job, as it would affect how my new employer sees me because I would have to be there whenever the labor office calls for me.

Dare I ask, where is the justice in this? An employee who lost his/her job would have to go through all the trouble in the world to get his/her hard earned salary back, while the company gets away with murder?

- jessism © 13042008 -