KUALA LUMPUR | Three labour organisations have chided the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) on its fear mongering over the minimum wage hike which kicks-off on Jan 1.
The Sarawak Bank Employees Union (SBEU), Union Network International-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC) and the Labour Law Reform Coalition (LLR Coalition) in a joint statement said they were annoyed at the thinly veiled attempt by MEF to paint the minimum wage increase as only benefiting foreign workers instead of local workers.
“We have no problems if MEF wants to raise employers’ concerns on increasing wages. We don’t need to be reminded that business was, is and forever will be challenging.
“What we are extremely annoyed is the thinly veiled attempt to paint that the minimum wage increase is to benefit foreign workers instead of local workers, creating fear and resentment,” the three organisations said in a jont statement today.
The statement was signed by SBEU’s Chief Executive Officers Andrew Lo; UNI-MLC President Datuk Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal; and Co Chair of LLR Coalition Gopala Krishnan.
The trio said blaming the recruitment system and forced labour in home countries where foreign labour in Malaysia is derived from is a classic case of shooting the messenger.
“It is employers in Malaysia who created the demand that 30 per cent of workforce is now foreign. If there is no demand, there will not be any supply and there will be no exploitation,” they said.
SBEU, UNI-MLC and LLR Coalition also said the MEF’s move of quoting retrenchment figures from the media industry was another fear mongering tactic.
“The retrenchment in the media industry has nothing do with minimum wage but a consequence of failure to adapt technological and changing landscape. None of those retrenched are at a minimum wage,” they said.
They added that MEF also refuses to accept that it is the low wages that lead to low productivity as employers do not invest in productivity enhancement technology as long as there is an abundant of cheap foreign labour. Instead it even blamed proposed increased overtime threshold as causing low productivity.
“We are please to note that MEF now acknowledges the need for businesses to confirm to international labour standards.
“Why then does it so strongly object 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”, they said.
The statement by three labour organisations was in response to executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan’s remarks on Dec 27 that the minimum wage increase would benefit foreign workers more than local workers, and which could trigger more problems.
It was recently reported that the federal government had 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.
