August Buma
SIBU: The state Labour Department has revealed that some employers are still underpaying their employees.
The department inspected 4,085 places of employment across the state last year, out of which 74 did not comply with the Minimum Wages Order 2012.
Its director August Buma disclosed that until February this year, 597 places of employment had been inspected, where 14 failed to comply with the order.
“In February (this year), nine employers did not comply (with the Minimum Wages Order 2012). The Sarawak Labour Department will inspect at least 7,000 places of employment this year to ensure compliance,” August told The Borneo Post yesterday.
He was commenting on the compliance with the Minimum Wages Order 2012 in the state.
In 2012, Bernama reported that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak had announced the minimum wage for workers in Peninsular Malaysia as being set at RM900 a month, or RM4.33 per hour, while for Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan, the minimum was RM800 per month or RM3.85 an hour.
Najib was further quoted to have said that the minimum wage would cover workers in all sectors of the economy except for domestic help services or maids, gardeners and similar forms of employment.
Asked on the type of action to be taken against employers who did not toe the line, August said the department would send a notification to them asking them to comply, including paying the arrears. This would be followed by opening an investigation and pursuing legal action if these employers still did not comply, he explained.
“The department has opened investigation papers to take legal action against five employers for failure to pay the minimum wages,” he revealed.
On another matter, the AZAM Job Placement 2015 programme at ‘tamu’ car park of Sibu Jaya on Saturday offered 834 vacancies.
From the breakdown of statistics on vacancies offered by industry, manufacturing had 75 job openings, while retail, wholesale, vehicle repairs and household items had 91, hotels and restaurants had 103, public administration, defence and social security had 500 and community, social and individual activities had 65.
Towards this end, August stressed that it was important for jobs to be viewed as a career.
He cited the example of workers in Japan, where they viewed their first job as their last.
He also quoted advice from the Malaysian Employers Federation for workers to avoid job hopping during the present economic situation.