REPLY TO ARTICLE – BN is the one short-changing us, not PR
We refer to an article entitled “BN is the one short-changing us, not PR” published in Malaysia Today – MT Columns on November 10, 2011.
We hereby would like to make some clarification of the article related to the minimum wage.
By Corporate Communication Unit, Ministry of Human Resource, Putrajaya
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES TO IMPLEMENT MINIMUM WAGE IN MALAYSIA: A GRAVE CONCERN
The New Economic Model introduced by the government has looked seriously towards providing assistance to the rakyat through one of its noble intention in implementing the minimum wage in the private sector with the main objectives of primarily to ensure all basic needs of workers and their families are met; to provide sufficient social protection to workers; to reduce nation’s dependency on unskilled foreign labour; and to encourage industry to move up the value chain by investing in higher technology and increase labour productivity.
The government has agreed, on 15 October 2010 to implement the national minimum wage, and thereafter has progressively undertaken initiatives in moving forward towards the implementation of the minimum wages.
These actions saw a series of workshops by the Ministry of Human Resources in drafting the minimum wage legislation from October through December 2010, involving major Stakeholders comprising the Trade Union, Employer Associations as well as the State Legal Department of Sabah and Sarawak.
Anticipating the volume of study and research, the Ministry of Human Resources has sought the assistance from the World Bank through the consultancy work in conducting the minimum wage study. The Ministry, in collaboration with the World Bank has conducted a series of Labs and Workshop since February 2011. Simultaneously, the minimum wage legislation was robustly developed by the ministry together with the AG Chambers which was ultimately tabled and passed by Parliament on 30th June 2011. The legislation has given way to the establishment of the National Wages Consultative Council to deliberate on the minimum wage on the rates and coverage and to make recommendation to the government. Assisting the Council and to compliment the World Bank study, the Technical Committee was established in April 2011 to conduct its internal research based on national data and also to conduct public consultation relating to minimum wage implementation.
National Wages Consultative Council was establishment of the on 28th of September 2011 and has aggressively deliberated on the World Bank Report as well as the Technical Committee’s report on two official meeting on 27th October 2011 and 10th November 2011 respectively. The Council hopes that the recommendation on the minimum wages could be escalated to the government soon and for the government to announce by the end of the year.
The government has truly and aggressively conducted its sincere attention towards the implementation of the minimum wage. The thorough study took concern not only to provide minimum wage that brings decent wage to workers but also looking seriously into the impact of minimum wage to the economy and the nation as a whole.
