The Human Resources Ministry has ordered the employer of a group of Indian nationals stranded in a church here to clear their unpaid wages and purchase air tickets for their return home.

The ministry's director of international standards Wahab Salleh said today the 45 workers will be sent home in batches due to the unavailability of tickets at a short notice.

"We have also recorded their wage claims and we will try to settle them before the workers leave.

"If not, we will negotiate on their behalf and send any claims back to them via the Indian High Commission," he said when contacted.

The former employees of Gopis Construction Sdn Bhd based in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, sought shelter at the St Francis Xavier Church in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, two weeks ago following a dispute with their employer.

They claimed that their employer had threatened them with physical harm when they refused to move from their then work site in Perak to another in Johor.

Agent missing

Labour organisation, Tenaganita said it was uncertain how long more the workers will be required to remain in Malaysia.

"It will depend on how fast the employer gets clearance from the Home Affairs Ministry," the organisation's migrant desk coordinator Aegile Fernandez told malaysiakini.

In addition, she said the workers have also been unable to get in touch with the agent who brought them into the country.

"The agent (from India) is now in Malaysia but his mobile phone has been turned off. He is also not at the premises where he said he would be," she added.

The Indian migrants were said to have paid the employment agent RM10,000 each on the understanding that they would be issued permits to work in Malaysia for three years.

However, none of the workers were subsequently issued with written work contracts.

"The workers said they will try to get their money back from the agent and they will look for the agent when they get home.

"But we don't know now if the agent will be there or if he has run away," said Fernandez.

Lapsed MoUs

Fernandez said there are other workers who are also trapped in a similar predicament.

"We have been asked to assist 75 workers in Seberang Prai and 100 workers in Penang, all of them from India, who are facing similar problems.

"They are not given work contracts and they are paid only half of what was promised to them in India," she said.

According to her, these problems have arisen because of a "serious lapse" in the government's policy regarding foreign workers.

"Since there is no government-to-government agreements on recruitment of migrant labour, workers are brought in without procedure.

"Although the government signed several memoranda of understanding (MoU) with labour supplying countries, these MoUs have lapsed," she said.

Furthermore, she added, the government should be signing bilateral agreements with the labour supplying countries to ensure that foreign workers entry into the country was regulated.

"The policy changes all the time. It is confusing to the sending governments and also the employers," she said.

One example, she said, is the recruitment of Indian workers to work in factories and construction sites although government policy limits their employment to plantations.

Obtain permits

Meanwhile, Fernandez said that Teganita was still trying to obtain permits for the 45 Indian nationals to remain in Malaysia but with a different employer.

"The Human Resources Ministry said it is not within their jurisdiction to allow for a transfer so we will have to apply to the Immigration Department," she said.

However, attempts to contact the Foreign Workers Department at the Home Affairs Ministry for clarification on the issuance of Indian worker permits to construction firms were unsuccessful.

The owner of Gopis Construction, VK Lingam, was unavailable for comment.