KUCHING: Three organisations including Sarawak Bank Employees Union (SBEU) have called on Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) to stop the fear mongering on minimum wage hike.
SBEU, together with Union Network International-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC) and Labour Law Reform Coalition (LLR Coalition), said they are extremely annoyed at the thinly veiled attempt by MEF to paint the minimum wage increase as only benefiting foreign workers instead of local workers.
“It is employers in Malaysia who created the demand that 30 per cent of workforce are now foreigners. If there is no demand, there will not be any supply and there will be no exploitation,” said a statement from SBEU chief executive officer Andrew Lo, UNI-MLC president Datuk Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal and LLR Coalition co-chair Gopala Krishnan.
It was issued in response to executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan who had said the minimum wage increase would benefit foreign workers more than local workers, and which could trigger more problems.
SBEU, UNI-MLC and LLR Coalition also alleged MEF of quoting retrenchment figures of the media industry as its another fear mongering tactic.
These organisations said the retrenchment in the media industry has nothing do with minimum wage but a consequences of failure to adapt technological and changing landscape.
“None of those retrenched are earning minimum wage,” they said, also in response to another remark by Shamsuddin that media industry was badly impacted and even those in the retail industry also face a lot of challenges.
“MEF also refused to accept that it is the low wages that lead to low productivity as employers will not invest in productivity enhancing technology as long as there is an abundant of cheap foreign labour.
“It even blamed proposed increase overtime threshold as causing low productivity,” they said.
Having said that, these organisations are pleased to note that MEF now acknowledges the need for businesses to conform to international labour standards.
“Why then it strongly objects to the Amendments to the Industrial Relations Act that paved the way to Convention 87? Isn’t that being manipulative?
“Again we hope MEF can come up with proactive response,” ended the statement.
It was recently reported that the federal government has mandated that the new RM1,200 monthly minimum wage be implemented on Jan 1, 2020 in 57 cities and municipalities across Malaysia.
The Ministry of Human Resources had said that the minimum wage would remain at RM1,100 a month in other areas.