DOZENS of foreign workers have won a legal battle against US tyre giant Goodyear for underpaying them, their lawyer said today.

Sixty-five migrants from Myanmar, Nepal and India working at a Goodyear plant in Selangor lodged a case at the industrial court, lawyer R. Chandra Segaran told AFP.

They accused the company of not complying with a collective labour agreement by failing to give them shift allowances, bonuses and pay rises, he said.

The losses they suffered amounted to about RM2 million over several years, he said.

The company argued that the migrants were not covered by the agreement but the court ruled in the workers’ favour on Wednesday, and ordered Goodyear to pay them back. 

“The migrant workers were short-changed,” Chandra Segaran said.

The ruling amounted to a victory that signalled “everyone should enjoy the same benefits as Malaysian workers do”, he said.

“Migrant workers should not be discriminated against.”

It was not immediately clear whether Goodyear would appeal the ruling. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

The court previously ruled against Goodyear in similar cases involving 119 migrant workers, but the company is appealing. – AFP, June 11, 2021.