'Permit-less' Western Digital staff still behind bars?

Several assembly line operators of electronics giant Western Digital are believed to be under detention at the immigration detention centre in Shah Alam, as their employer has failed to provide them with work permits.

This is despite the fact that the workers, all Indonesian, have been employed by the company, which won the Best Employer in Asia 2009 award, for almost two years.

According to an immigration officer who participated in the operation last week, the workers were nabbed at a farmers’ market about 10 minutes’ walk from their hostel and the factory in Sungai Way, Selangor.

“I can confirm that a group was detained and some have been released, but not all,” he said when contacted, declining to be identified.

When contacted, the investigating officer involved also declined to provide further information, saying that the matter is “sensitive”.

“We can only release such information to authorised personnel of Western Digital,” she said.  

Malaysiakini had earlier been informed by Western Digital assembly line worker Ully Suryana (name changed to protect identity) that five of her friends were taken in while buying breakfast at the farmers’ market and were released several days later for unknown reasons.

She said none of them had work permits and have, over the past two years, been consistently told that the permits are still being processed by immigration.

Backlog in permits

According to an officer who is looking into the case at the Indonesian Embassy, Western Digital still has to provide work permits for about 1,500 of its Indonesian workers.

“There were initially some 6,000 workers without permits several years back, but Western Digital has promised to deal with the issue in batches,” said the officer, who cannot be named as he is not authorised to speak to media.

In response to yesterday's news report, Western Digital vice-president of human resources in Asia Michael Meston acknowledges that the company is facing a “permit backlog”.

“Due to rapid business expansion in the past two years, Western Digital sought and received approval from the Malaysian government to recruit additional staff from Indonesia.

“The increased volume of work permits resulted in processing delays, but Western Digital is working closely with Malaysian immigration to expedite the permit backlog,” he said in a letter to Malaysiakini.

Meston stressed that the workers are working legally in Malaysia with full approval from the Immigration Department and that the conglomerate has “successfully resolved” the “few cases” where its employees have been “mistakenly detained”.

“Recognising the challenges Malaysia faces with illegal immigration and to prevent any potential misunderstanding with the authorities, we encourage our Indonesian employees to carry multiple forms of identification when traveling outside our factor and residential facilities,” he said.

80 get work permits

Last Friday, the human resources department posted notices calling on workers who arrived in the second half of 2009 to attend a meeting with the department on the topic of their work permits.

Contacted yesterday, Ully said that an announcement was posted on a factory notice board on Tuesday to say that Western Digital has obtained permits for 80 workers.

“All 80 arrived in the same batch a year and eight months ago,” she said.

The workers have claimed to face harassment from authorities who allegedly demand bribes to spare them from detention.

“As a caring employer, Western Digital will thoroughly investigate all claims outlined in the article and take appropriate action,” Meston said.

VIDEO | 10.29 mins