1,000 Socso officers to hunt errant employers

Social Security Organisation (Socso) will be conducting "Operasi Kesan" to identify employers who did not register their workers with the body starting March 1.

Its chief executive officer K. Selvarajah said the move was to protect the welfare of workers as stipulated by law.

"Socso will conduct a crackdown on employers who did not register and make contributions to the Work Accident and Disability Pension schemes.

Souce: NST 

Extract herewith some of the information regarding Socso contribution:-

Definition of EMPLOYEE:

Under the Act, an employee is defined as a person who has been employed by an employer under a contract of service or apprenticeship.

Employees Earning Less Than RM3,000 must compulsorily contribute to SOCSO. SOCSO's coverage is only for employees who are Malaysian citizens and who are Permanent Residents.

Employees Earning More Than RM3,000 and who had not previously registered or paid contributions to SOCSO are given an option to be covered under the Act. Both the employer and employee have to consent to the coverage, by submitting 3 copies of the Notice of Election and Form 2 to the relevant SOCSO office. That particular employee will only be covered under the Act from the date the relevant SOCSO office accepted the notice.

Principle Of "Once In Always In" Employees who have been previously registered with SOCSO and now earn more than RM3,000 must compulsorily continue to contribute in line with the principle of "once in always in" under the First Schedule of the Act. Once an employee is eligible under the Act, he will always be eligible for coverage irrespective of his next monthly wage. All employees eligible for coverage under the Act must register and contribute to SOCSO.

Categories of employees exempted from SOCSO's coverage:

• Government employees
• Domestic servants
• Self-employed persons
• Foreign workers
• Business owner and spouses of sole-proprietorship or partnership

Definition Of Wages

All renumeration payable in money to an employee is taken into account as wages for the purposes of SOCSO contributions. These include the following payments:

- Salary
- Overtime payments
- Commission
- Payments for leave such as annual, sick and maternity leave, rest day, public holidays
- Allowances such as incentive, good behavior, cost of living (COLA)
- Service Charge

The following payments are not considered as wages:

- Payments by employer to any pension or provident fund for employees
- Mileage claims
- Gratuity payment(s) for dismissal or retrenchments
- Annual bonus