PUTRAJAYA: Former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Shim Lip Kiong has been appointed as the chairman of the National Wages Consultative Council, an independent body whose task is to study workers’ remuneration and set a minimum wage based on the principle of tripartism – government, employees and employers.
Datuk Dr S Subramaniam
Announcing the appointments of the council’s members at a press conference here yesterday, Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S Subramaniam said Shim’s wide experience when he was the chairman of the Industrial Court would help the council to arrive at a fair and equitable minimum wage.
Besides a chairman, the council also has a deputy chairman, five representatives from the public sector, six workers’ representatives, six employers’ representatives and five other appointed members.
Dr Subramaniam said the council would make the recommendation on minimum wage to the government for final consideration before an announcement on it was made.
“The government will announce the minimum wage and the mechanism for its implementation at the end of the year. The council will also issue a report on all the studies it made which will become government documents,” he said.
He added that the council would also be assisted by a technical committee made up of socio-economic experts and statisticians.
In June, Parliament passed the National Wages Consultative Bill 2011 to look into matters involving workers remuneration. It supercedes the Wages Councils Act 1947.
At present, wages in the private sector are based on market forces or collective agreements (CAs) between employers and unions.
Following is the full list of the members of the council:
Chairman: Tan Sri Datuk Amar Steve Shim Lip Kiong
Deputy Chairman: Datuk Dr Syed Mohamad Syed Abdul Kadir (non-executive senior director, CIMB Bank Berhad and former secretary-general, Human Resource Ministry)
Government (Five members): Dr Sundaran Annamalai (Finance Ministry); Dr Mohd Gazali Abas (Economic Planning Unit); Datuk Mat Aron Deraman (Public Service Department); G Alagasan (International Trade and Industry Ministry) and Mohd Sahar Darusman (Human Resource Ministry)
Workers’ Representatives (Six members):
Mohd Khalid Atan (MTUC – Timber Employees Union); Abdul Halim Mansor (MTUC secretary-general – National Union of Petroleum and Chemical Industry Workers); G Rajasekaran (Metal Industries Employees Union); Andrew Lo Kian Nyan (MTUC Sarawak secretary); Catherine Jikunan (MTUC Sabah secretary) and A Navamukundan (National Union of Plantation Workers).
Employers’ representatives (six members): Datuk Azman Shah Datuk Seri Haron (Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president); Tan Sri Dr Mohd Noor Ismail (Malayan Agricultural Producers Association president); Shamsuddin Bardan (MEF executive director), Dato Henry Lau Lee Kong (Sarawak Timber Association secretary-general), Alan Khoo Choom Kwong (Sabah Employers Consultative Association chairman); sixth member yet to be named.
Other members: Tan Sri Prof Emeritus Anuwar Ali (president/vice-chancellor Open University of Malaysia); Tan Sri Datuk Mustafa Mansur (board member, Malaysian Productivity Corporation); Datuk Marimuthu Nadason (president Fomca/Malaysian Association of Standards Users); Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid (executive director, Malaysian Institute of Economic Research); Chung Hon Cheong (Independent non-executive director, Tenaga Nasional Berhad/special advisor to Johor Corporation (JCorp).
Secretary: Kua Abun (Secretary, Policy Division, Human Resource Ministry). — Bernama