8/8/2019 Malaysian Employers should pay for all medical, hospitalization & surgical cost of their workers

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From: Charles Hector <easytocall[at]yahoo[dot]com >Date: 14 January 2011 17:40Subject: Need Endorsement (Re-send): Employers should pay for all medical, hospitalization & surgical cost of their workersTo: chef <chef[at]™[dot]net[dot]my>

Dear Friends,

We are hoping that you will endorse, the attached joint statement entitled "Employers should pay for all medical,

hospitalization & surgical cost of their workers". We hope to be able to issue the same maybe in about 5 days, i.e. by Wednesday(19/1/2011). Kindly also circulate the request for endorsement to your networks, and the more groupswe get the better. If you would like to endorse the statement, revert by email to Charles Hector (chef@tm.net.my or easytocall[at]yahoo[dot]com ) or Pranom Somwong (Bee) ( p_somwong[at]yahoo[dot]com).

Recently, the Malaysian government has introduced a new Foreign Workers Hospitalisation and Surgical Insurance, and they areasking the migrant workers themselves to pay for this. Employers of domestic workers and those in the plantation sector areexpected to pay for their workers. This already is discriminatory. It is also wrong because it is a new obligation imposed onmigrant workers already here in Malaysia.

More importantly, it is very wrong for workers themselves to be made to pay for medical treatment, surgery, etc that they need byreason of some workplace accident and/or occupational disease. Malaysia charges migrant workers 1st class rates at governmenthospitals, but the maximum obligation of fees/charges that employers have to pay is absurdly low. Why can't they also be entitledto healthcare at the same rate that locals pay?

The statement is self explanatory, and it also deals with issues that are not common and/or usual.

We hope to receive endorsements as soon as possible. Thanking you all in advance for your support.

In solidarity,

Charles Hector 

 ______ 

Media Statement 

Employers should pay for all medical, hospitalization& surgical cost of their workers

We, the undersigned ___ organizations, groups and networks are appalled that the Malaysian Government

is now asking about 1.5 million migrant workers themselves, and not their employers, to buy a new Foreign

Workers Hospitalisation and Surgical Insurance. If these migrant workers do not do so, the Malaysian

government is threatening not to renew their work permits. The Malaysian Health Minister, Datuk Seri Liow

Tiong Lai, also stated that the worker’s work permits will not be renewed if there are outstanding hospital

bills. [Bernama, 7/1/2011, Foreign Workers with Insurance May Enter Hospital without Deposit]

What is worr ying is that workers should never be required to pay for their treatment and necessary

healthcare especially if the reason treatment is sought is a work-related or industrial accident, or some

occupation-related disease.

With regard to migrant workers in Malaysia, who are required to get a clean bill of health before they enter 

Malaysia, and before they are given a work permit, it is only right for employers to be liable to pay for all

treatment and medical charges if they do get sick in Malaysia. Further, it is generally the employer that

determines where these workers must stay and work.

In Malaysia, whilst the social security of local workers are covered by the Social Security Act, migrant

workers are covered by the lesser Workmen’s Compensation Act 1952, which unlike the former do not

provide for continuous regular support and assistance until death for a worker who is a victim of an

industrial accident or occupational disease. The Workmen’s Compensation Act, on the other hand, only

provides for a one-off payment to the victim and/or their dependents where death has resulted from the

injury/disease, that is a lump sum equal to sixty months' earnings or RM18,000, whichever is the less.

It is good that the Workmen's Compensation (Foreign Workers' Compensation Scheme) (Insurance) Order 

1998, extended coverage to personal injury (and death) that is sustained in an accident which occurs

outside the working hours of the workman. Given this fact, there only needs to be a minimum extension of 

coverage to cover any remaining matters that will require treatment, hospitalization and/or surgery, and this

could be done quite easily by amending the relevant Act and/or broadening the scope of the current

insurance that employers already do have to buy for their foreign workers.

Malaysian Health Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, was reported saying that this new insurance was to

ensure that foreign workers’ medical bills in public hospitals, which to date total RM18mil, will not be a

burden to the Government. (Star, 26/11/2010, Compulsory medical insurance policies for foreign workers

from next year). However, this cannot be right as there should not be any outstanding migrant worker 

medical bills at all.

Under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, the employer is clearly liable to pay for the conveyance to the

hospital, treatment, ward charges, medicines and other expenses incurred in the treatment andrehabilitation of such workmen (sec.15). The employer is clearly liable to pay directly to the management

of such hospital all fees and charges, and as such one wonders what unpaid medical bills the Minister is

8/8/2019 Malaysian Employers should pay for all medical, hospitalization & surgical cost of their workers

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.

Further, attention also should be drawn to Workmen's Compensation Regulations 1953, in particular 

Regulation 18, which deals with the issue of excess fees, “A workman admitted either to an approved or a

special hospital shall, where such hospital is a private hospital, himself be liable to pay the amounts of any

fees or costs incurred on his behalf in excess of the maximum amounts prescribed by the Minister of Health

under section 15 (3) of the Act, and, where such hospital is a government hospital, such excess amounts

shall be paid from public funds.” Since, the Minister is talking about government hospitals, there is certainly

no way that there exist outstanding medical bills when it comes to migrant workers.

The Malaysian pro-employer government has proceeded to further protect employers of migrant workers by

limiting the maximum amount fees and cost that is payable by an employer under the Workmen’s

Compensation Act. As of 1st March 2007 (PU (A) 077/2007), this maximum liability of an employer for ward

charges, including surgical ward treatment fee is RM300, for operation fees it is RM250, for X-Ray Fees it

is RM100 and for other electric therapeutic charges it is RM100.

The rates stipulated are outrageously low given the fact that government hospitals and clinics charge

migrant workers first class rates, and the lowest deposit for a migrant worker who needs to be warded is

RM400, and if it was a surgical case, it is RM800-00. Operation charges can range from RM50 to RM3,000

depending on the type of operation. Ultrasound cost RM100. Radiology charges range from RM50-RM600.

Lab charges range from RM5 to RM100 depending on the type of tests, and usually there will be quite a lot

of tests needed.

But, even when the government does limit the amount that the employer is liable to pay, the excess asstipulated in Regulation 18 of the Workmen's Compensation Regulations 1953 is paid from public funds,

and as such there really is no logical reason why there can ever be outstanding debt. It is really hoped that

in Malaysia, the government does not expect the migrant worker to come up with the money themselves

before the necessary treatment and/or surgery is done. Employers should make all the necessary

payments immediately, and should thereafter do the needful to claim whatever excess payment from the

public fund.

The Health Minister is naïve to insist that the migrant worker only need to provide their passport before

treatment is given, as in most cases the employers and/or the agent do wrongly hold on to the passports of 

migrant workers. Sometimes, the passports are with immigration authorities and/or some other authorities.

Hence, in the name of justice, all necessary treatment must be immediately provided to migrant workers on

their arrival and registration, without insistence on the production of passport and/or payment of any large

deposit. Let not the absence of a document and money be the cause of death or the loss of limbs of a

migrant worker in Malaysia.

It is also very wrong to threaten to penalize the migrant worker with non-renewal of work permit, when any

punishments in law should rightly be against the employer and should not in any way jeopardize the rights

and the well being of migrant workers already in Malaysia.

We, the undersigned groups, hereby:-

a) Call on the Malaysian Government to ensure that all employers of migrant workers, not just those that

employ domestic workers and in the plantation sector, be liable to pay for this new Foreign Workers

Hospitalisation and Surgical Insurance;

b) Call on the Malaysian government to ensure that no worker would be made liable to pay for the

conveyance to hospital, treatment, ward charges, medicines and other expenses following a work-related

accident and/or for some occupational disease.

c) Call on the Malaysian government to repeal Maximum Amounts for Fees and Costs (PU (A) 077/2007),

and ensure that employers of migrant workers be liable to pay reasonable amounts consistent with therates imposed by the government for medical care and treatment of migrant workers at government

hospitals.

d) Urge the Malaysian government to review and remove the differential rates being charged for 

Malaysians and other foreigners, especially migrant workers, at government hospitals and healthcare

facilities.

e) Urge the Malaysian government to review the policy of ‘No Treatment until Production of Passport and

payment of deposits”, and ensure that all who needs medical treatment and care are immediately given the

said required care that will prevent loss of life and/or limbs.