SIBU: There are several more major outstanding issues that the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak wants the state government to consider seriously.
Speaking at the Sarawak Bank Employees’ Union (SBEU) 45th anniversary celebration dinner, MTUC Sarawak chairman Mohd Ibrahim Hamid said that the issues were on the Sarawak Labour Ordinance (SLO), foreign workers, cost of living allowance (COLA) and retirement age.
He said under the SLO, the state government granted exemption of basic benefits like annual leave, rest days, public holidays and overtime to timber and oil palm industry employers for their employees earning between RM2,000 and RM2,500.
“This is unconscionable and must be rescinded,” he said during a dinner function at a hotel here last Sunday.
Mohd Ibrahim said despite high economic growth and rapid development since independence, wages of Sarawakian workers remained low.
“Daily wages are just RM12 per day in timber camps, supermarket girls earn less than RM500 per month, workers at fast food restaurants are paid RM2.30 per hour, all are below the poverty line of RM842,” he added.
He said it was extremely difficult for trade unions to act because employers were helped by the government in suppressing wages for the workers.
He also said that to reduce foreign workers, the Home Ministry should stop granting license ‘with impunity to selected outsourcing companies to import labour and farming them out to end-users.’
“This is worse than bonded labour because all too often, these companies dictate the labour supply and they charge end-users much more that what they actually pay to these workers in wages,” he said.
He noted that there were more than 200,000 foreign workers in Sarawak while thousands of Sarawakians were working in Singapore, Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
On another matter, he said the state government should also pay COLA to public sector employees.
He reasoned, the cost of living in the state was 15 to 25 per cent higher compared to that in the Peninsular Malaysia.
On retirement age, he said it would be a wise move if the government increase the retirement age for all workers including those in the private sector to at least 60 years.
The increase, he said, would address the issues like rapid increase in the life expectancy and reduce reliance on foreign workers.
He added it would ensure adequate retirement savings when workers finally retired as well as increase overall productivity of the workforce.
Mohd Ibrahim said MTUC Sarawak was pro-labour but it did not mean that they were anti business or certain political parties or the government.
“We want to work with the government. To do that, the government must engage trade unions and workers representatives when formulating economic and development policies so that Sarawakians will benefit as well,” he said, adding that the trade union department must be more union-friendly.
Some 2,000 SBEU members from Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri attended the dinner.
Also present were SBEU president Hadiah Leen, SBEU chief executive officer Andrew Lo, SBEU general secretary Law Kiat Min and SBEU Sibu chief Agnes Tang.