Four Indian nationals today filed a suit against the Malaysian Rubber Board (LGM) and its agent for allegedly breaching their promise of employment.

The four are demanding for RM116,800 in compensation.

The suit was filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court by lawyer R Ragunanthanan on behalf of Hanifa Hameed Hamza, M Arunkumar, P Subramaniam and S Kumar.

The four arrived in Malaysia from South India in March last year and were received by representatives from LGM and it's agent, ASSR Enterprises.

They claimed that their passports were taken by the ASSR representative for immigration purposes but have not been returned to them until now.

With a valid work permit from LGM for plantation services, the four men were allegedly kept in a flat for months without employment.

During this period they kept asking for their passports and employment contract to be returned but ASSR had allegedly ignored their requests.

According to the statement of claims, they managed to raise RM1,050 between them when they found a plastic moulding job in Klang for a month and a half.

Threatened with violence

However, ASSR, which agreed to return their passports for that amount, had allegedly failed to do so and left the four in a lurch.

The workers claimed that they were not fed, not given proper welfare and threatened with violence throughout their stay in the flat.

Things took a turn for the worse when ASSR allegedly abandoned them completely in December 2006 forcing them to move out of the flat and live on the streets.

Living off charity and donations from friends, the four sought help from migrant workers NGO Tenaganita who then started negotiations with their employer, LGM.

"They passed the buck to ASSR but we refuse to deal with the agents because under the law, the employer is entirely responsible for their workers," Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

She said the alleged ill-treatment of the workers by LGM as a government statutory body should not be taken lightly.

Fernandez also pointed out that LGM and ASSR have both ignored Tenaganita and Ragunanthanan's letter of demands.

Living in fear

Ragunathan said that information on ASSR was limited but revealed that it's registered in two names, based in Taman Subang Baru and dealt with field maintenance in spraying and planting.

Relief sought by the four men - two of them married with children - include loss of wages amounting to RM76,800 (that is the promised pay of RM800 monthly for two years to each of them).

They are also asking for special damages on expenses incurred in securing the job which included mortgaging their land and selling family jewellery for the agency fee that amounted to RM10,000 each.

Also sought is a mandatory injunction for ASSR to return their passports and for LGM to provide rightful welfare to these four men while waiting for the case to be disposed.

The Indian nationals are in a quandary as their documents are being held by their agents and they face the threat of being arrested as illegal immigrants by the authorities.

Hanifa, 29, said that life has been difficult for his friends and himself.

"We are afraid to leave our house for fear of being caught and without the permit we can't work.

"We took the proper procedure. We are here to make an honest living. We just want our passports and the right to work again," he said.