Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co is accused of unpaid wages, unlawful overtime, and threats against foreign workers at its Malaysian factory.
Complaints filed by 185 Goodyear workers said that not only are their salaries being reduced unfairly, not only were they being forced to work excessively, but they were also being denied full access to their passports, reports Reuters.
The workers have filed three complaints against the American company, two in 2019 and one in 2020. In documents submitted to the court, it was revealed that some workers put in as much as 229 hours a month in overtime, more than twice the legal limit in Malaysia.
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Although Malaysian workers are protected by a local union, Goodyear argued in court that foreign workers aren’t entitled to the benefits of collective agreements because they are not union members.
“The company had different rules for different sets of workers,” Sharan Kumar Rai, who worked with Goodyear from 2012 and filed one of the lawsuits, said.
Further, following the first lawsuit filed in 2019, Goodyear asked some of its workers to sign a letter saying they would withdraw from the lawsuit without their lawyer’s prior knowledge. Anna Ng Fui Choo, the chairman of Malaysia’s industrial court, said the latter was “an act of unfair labor practice.”
So far, the court has ruled in the workers’ favor in two of the cases, ordering Goodyear to pay back wages. The foreign workers are claiming 5 million ringgit ($1.21 million USD) in unpaid wages, but Goodyear has challenged both rulings and will appeal them in the high court.
“We take seriously any allegations of improper behavior relating to our associates, operations, and supply chain,” a Goodyear representative told Reuters.
