MINIMUM WAGE : NOW NOT LATER – For ALL and NO Loophole

MINIMUM WAGE : NOW NOT LATER – For ALL and NO Loophole

We are alarmed with the FMM lobby and the compromise by some Ministers. We call for minimum wage now for all with zero loopholes.

  1. The minimum wage legislation was first introduced in Malaysia because of the failure and the abuse of the market system in determining wages. If Malaysia allowed for market forces to determine wages; if we did not allow for cheap migrant labour to come into the market, then the wages would have been automatically high. it is also the MEF, who have been constantly lobbying the Government to get more foreign workers as it goes hand in hand into their cheap labour policies. Because of this manipulation of the market forces, the Employers should not complain when minimum wages are increased time to time.
  2. The date told by the Prime Minister 1 May 2022 should be date of implementation and there should be no further delay. Simply because the actual date of implementation should have been either January 2021 or February 2022 because the last increase of minimum wage January 2019 for RM 1100 and February 2020 was only for 57 township. So historically because of the delay of implementation of minimum wage , workers have lost a total of 28 months of backdated wages. Who is going to compensate them.
    January 2013 – RM 900
    (all companies given 12 months – 12 months delay)
    (18 months)
    July 2016 – RM 1000
    (6 months)
    January 2019 – RM 1100
    February 2020 – RM 1200
    (4 months)
    May 2022 – RM 1500
  3. The Minimum wage of RM 1500 is not a massive hike
    • MTUC, Cuepacs have been demanding for RM 1800
    • Both the Coalition BN and PH have already promised RM 1500 within a term
    • Bank Negara Estimate for Living wage in KL in 2016. Now would be higher is Single adult RM 2,700, for a couple RM 4500 and a family of 2 children RM 6,500.
    • Using the Government formula – Technical Committee on wage which take into account poverty line, CPI, production growth and Unemployment, then Minimum wage in Malaysia should be RM 2017.
    • In the region, Malaysia workers purchasing power with the minimum wage is the
      lowest in ASEAN because workers in Malaysia only get 12.62% (10.45% in 2018)
      of purchasing power compared to per capita income.
  4. Another alarming fact is that Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar announced that the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be exempted from applying the RM1,500 minimum wage rate from May 1. This was told in Dewan Rakyat. Who is Noh Omar to make such an exemption? The powers to do so is only in the hands of the Human Resource Minister who has previously given such exemption based on case to case situation. We hope proper assessment is made because we are in an opinion based on previous minimum wage hike, it didn’t impact on the SME even though FMM use the same arguments
  5. PSM calls for implementation and the Government should help out companies who are unable to meet the minimum wage. The strategy should have been to tax the very rich individual and companies and cross subsidize the SMEs who needs help. In our scenario today, MEF will oppose all sorts of tax like wealth tax, capital gain tax etc including setting a ceiling for high wages and at the same time their only strategy is to ensure and suppress wages and ensure workers of the lowest paid are kept low. So increasing minimum wage below is not really the issue but readjusting wages and income from above is the solution.
    There are many ways to Government can help these few companies are facing hardship. The Government must able to redeploy and retrain. We propose to increase tax and assist companies after only assessment is made using the below method. The Government can Increase corporate tax gradually 1% per year till reach 30%, 1 to 5% wealth tax of any wealth exceeding RM 10million for example.
  6. There should be act to control the ceiling price of wages. Malaysia GINI coefficient is the second highest in South East Asia. Even our GLCs CEO some of them easily earn more than 100k a month
  7. Recently the Government’s reckless move in allowing several rounds of EPF withdrawals via i-Lestari, i-Sinar and i-Citra schemes have resulted in a total withdrawal of RM101 billion through 7.4 million members. This according to EPF has resulted in 6.1 million members having less than RM10,000 in their savings and 79% of them having less than RM1,000 left consequently. By increasing the minimum wage RM 300 perhaps in just a small way for the Government to assist these works to built up their savings through EPF 

S. Arutchelvan
PSM Deputy Chairperson

Tiada penjelasan mengenai isu utama dalam kenyataan Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor tentang perobohan kedai-kedai di Kampung Manickam

Tiada penjelasan mengenai isu utama dalam kenyataan Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor tentang perobohan kedai-kedai di Kampung Manickam

Respon kepada kenyataan Kerajaan Negeri Selangor mengenai isu perobohan kedai-kedai dan gerai-gerai di Kampung Manickam, Bangi Lama

oleh S. Arutchelvan, 9 April 2021

Saya berasa simpati dan lucu melihat “kawalan kerosakan” (damage control) yang cuba dibuat oleh Kerajaan Negeri Selangor, melalui kenyataan bertarikh 8 April 2021 oleh YB Ng Sze Han selaku Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Tetap Kerajaan Tempatan dan Pengangkutan Awam Negeri Selangor, mengenai isu perobohan gerai-gerai dan kedai-kedai di Kampung Manickam Bangi Lama dan kawasan sekitarnya pada 6 April 2021. Kami juga cukup sedar bahawa kenyataan ini dibuat dalam tempoh 48 jam selepas kritikan-kritikan teruk yang dilontarkan oleh pelbagai pihak mengenai cara Kerajaan Negeri Selangor menangani isu pengusiran pada masa COVID-19. Namun, kenyataan Exco Kerajaan Negeri ini langsung tidak menyentuh perkara pokok dalam isu ini.

Isu utama di sini adalah:

  1. Mengapa pengusiran dijalankan semasa rakyat menghadapi tekanan ekonomi pada ketika pandemik COVID-19?
  2. Mengapa gerai alternatif tidak diberikan sebelum dirobohkan? YB Mazwan, ADUN Sungai Ramal, dalam kenyataannya dalam Malaysiakini, mengatakan bahawa tidak ada kesegeraan (urgency) untuk membuat perobohan pada masa itu.
  3. ADUN Sungai Ramal memberitahu kepada peniaga-peniaga terbabit dan saya bahawa Menteri Besar telah memberitahunya operasi perobohan tidak akan dilakukan pada hari Selasa lalu dan hanya akan dilakukan selepas penempatan alternatif diberikan, manakala Pegawai Daerah (DO) pula mengatakan bahawa Menteri Besar meminta supaya operasi diteruskan setelah mendengar pandangan semua pihak. Maka siapa yang bercakap benar – Menteri Besar, Pegawai Daerah atau ADUN Sungai Ramal?
  4. YB Ronnie Liu (ADUN Sungai Pelek) mengatakan bahawa perobohan pada hari Selasa yang lalu itu melanggar dua dasar Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan (PH), iaitu yang pertama, memberikan tempat alternatif terlebih dahulu baru menjalankan perobohan; dan yang keduanya adalah tidak menyusahkan rakyat semasa Pandemik COVID-19.

Selain itu, kenyataan damage control oleh Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor tersebut cuba memberikan penekanan bahawa Kerajaan Negeri Selangor sentiasa menjunjung tinggi keluhuran undang-undang dan menghormati proses-prosesnya.

Namun pandangan ini tercalar kerana timbul persoalan-persoalan berikut:

  1. Bagaimanakah seorang peniaga yang kaya di Kampung Manickam telah membina kedai-kedai untuk lebih 20 tahun di atas tanah rizab kerajaan dan juga mengutip sewa daripada peniaga-peniaga kecil, tetapi tidak ada sebarang tindakan penguatkuasaaan diambil terhadapnya?
  2. Ada gambar video yang menunjukkan peniaga kaya tersebut telah membawa dua orang anggota penguatkuasa Majlis Perbandaran Kajang (MPKj) dalam keretanya, di mana aduan berkenaan telah dibuat oleh peniaga-peniaga kecil Kampung Manickam melalui Sistem Pengurusan Aduan Awam (SISPAA) pada 29 Januari 2021 (ID tiket: SEL.073112)
  3. Salah seorang peniaga gerai makanan juga telah mengadu bahawa pada bulan Januari lalu, adanya satu cadangan bahawa dia membayar duit sewa kepada Koperasi MPKj secara bulanan tetapi tawaran itu terbatal apabila mendapat satu notis lagi pada hari keesokannya.
  4. Sebelum ini, peniaga kaya itu (pemilik lot tanah yang bersebelahan dengan tanah rizab kerajaan) juga telah membawa samseng upahan untuk membantu TNB dalam memotong bekalan elektrik kepada gerai-gerai yang dibina di atas tanah rizab kerajaan di Kampung Manickam? Satu aduan polis juga telah dibuat oleh pekedai-pekedai Kampung Manickam pada 8 Ogos 2020.

Akhir kata, ini adalah masa untuk mengambil tanggungjawab dan mengubati kecederaan. Saya difahamkan bahawa semua pengusaha gerai dan kedai yang dirobohkan masih belum mendapat sebarang tawaran sehingga hari ini, dan saya juga dimaklumkan bahawa kerja-kerja perancangan untuk tempat alternatif masih belum disiapkan. Ada banyak kerja lain yang harus dilaksanakan sebelum tempat alternatif ini dapat siap. Selain itu, saya masih memikirkan bagaimana bengkel mekanik boleh dimasukkan dalam kawasan tempat alternatif di Pasar Bangi Lama yang dicadangkan?

 

S. Arutchelvan
Timbalan Pengerusi
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).