Foreign workers torch factory in Malaysia

Some 800 foreign workers set fire to their factory building in Malaysia on Tuesday night, aggrieved at the alleged mistreatment by their employers.

The workers, mostly from Nepal, set alight the electronics manufacturing plant of JCY HDD Technology Sdn Bhd in Kulaijaya around 8:00pm, local English daily The Star reported yesterday.

Fire fighters put out the fire two hours later. Earlier, the workers stoned their employers' office and burned down a car following a strike.

The protesters said the management made workers play a game where a ball was tossed and those who failed to catch it would be kicked, punched and beaten with sticks.

“We had also been treated badly and often kicked or punched by our employers for every mistake,” claimed Kishor Rai, a Nepalese protester, adding that they were also not properly paid for working on Sundays or for doing overtime.

None of 300 Bangladeshis working in the factory along with the Nepalese and Myanmarese was involved in the incident, Mantu Kumar Biswas, counsellor (labour) at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, told The Daily Star by phone yesterday.

Police yesterday arrested 39 Nepalese protesters in this connection.