M Saravanan warns employers against false Prihatin subsidy claims

Ragananthini Vethasalam Ragananthini Vethasalam Updated 6 years ago · Published on 31 May 2020 7:00AM · 1 Comments

Human Resources Minister M Saravanan says his ministry has the capability to detect whether an employee on the wage subsidy list is still drawing a salary and, if not, take action against an employer still trying to claim for this. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, May 31, 2020.

EMPLOYERS receiving funding from Putrajaya’s wage subsidy programme have been warned they will lose the incentive if the government learns they have laid off staff during the pandemic.

Human Resources Minister M Saravanan told The Malaysian Insight the ministry, through the Social Security Organisation (Socso), has the capability to look at the active contribution of employees through its Automated Socso Integrated System (Assist) system.

Assist is a portal for employers to pay monthly Socso contributions for their employees.

“Socso can check the status of employees who are under the wage subsidy list, if they are actively working.

“Employers with employees listed as inactive or retrenched may have subsequent incentives suspended,” Saravanan said.

The wage subsidy list will also be used as cross reference for those applying for the loss of employment benefits under the Employment Insurance System (EIS).

Socso’s EIS list, which states the companies receiving the subsidy, is uploaded to a public domain through its Prihatin Portal, to allow employees to verify discrepancies.

“I am aware that many workers are ‘unknown’ in status, that is if they are still in employment or have been retrenched.

“I urge workers with EIS contributions, who have not received their salary for more than three months and without any notification of their employment status, to apply for Socso’s EIS benefits,” Saravanan said.

Investigation into employment status will be carried out by EIS officers to facilitate benefit payments to those eligible.

This is to ensure that the welfare of affected employees will be taken care of, he said.

Between April 1 and May 27, Socso received 302,997 applications representing 2.45 million workers. So far, 284,786 applications have been approved.

The majority of the applications came from micro or small and medium enterprises.

Putrajaya has allocated RM13.5 billion out of the RM260 billion Prihatin Rakyat economic stimulus package for the Wage Subsidy Programme, which includes a RM600 subsidy for the monthly salary of employees earning below RM4,000.

This is only applicable to those whose employers have suffered a 50% drop in income since January 1, 2020. – May 31, 2020.

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Comments

  • The minister is absolutely right. There WILL be thieves among the employers who will not bat an eye before stealing from their own employees. One trick they could use is to continue paying the Socso contributions after having terminated the employees in order to mislead the government.

    Posted 6 years ago by Simple Sulaiman · Reply