Source: Free Malaysia Today
Human Resources Minister comes under fire for suggesting that higher wage depends on increased productivity.
PETALING JAYA: DAP economist and Klang MP Charles Santiago today lashed out at Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam over his comments which appeared to demean the demands for a minimum wage.
“In the last 10-15 years, workers face wage stagnation. Their wages increased only by 2.6% during the same period,” said Santiago.
He added that to make matters worse, household debts make up 78% of the Gross Domestic Product which contributes to 50% of Malaysians to be highly in debts.
He was responding to comments made by Subramaniam on minimum wage this morning when he alluded that high income as sought by the proponents of minimum wage must be in tandem with increased productivity.
The minister, also the MIC deputy president tweeted: “Income should increase with productivity. Prices in Malaysia are competitive on a global scale.
“Shift of industry towards knowledge and technology will move wages up,” he added.
A clearly peeved Santiago also debunked the notion that skilled workers earned more.
“A total of 400,000 skilled Malaysian workers are working in Singapore because the salary scale for the skilled work force is lower here compared to Singapore,” he said.
Elaborating further Santiago said that the Human Resources Ministry is only contemplating of setting the minimum wage at RM500 to RM700. The current poverty line is set at RM720.
“The round table conference on minimum wage which I hosted on Friday determined that the minimum wage should be on the scale of RM1,500 to RM2,000,” he said.
He also raised concerns over who was in charge of determining the minimum wage – was it the Human Resources Ministry or the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) of the Prime Minister’s Department.
3 May, 2011 at 11:22 pm
Clearly the Government is in cahoots with the federation of employers for various corrupt reasons. It cannot be inclusive of working closely with trade unions and political opposition parties and yet claims its 1Malaysia agenda. Supports foreign labor at the expense of local employment. It is not different from Nasi Kandar operators crying that there are no takers for jobs offered. It appoints political cronies into Senate and GLCs and yet claims it is its right. The politically motivated sex-scandals and the biased involvement of the various branches of the Government has further eroded faith and trust of the Government. How can minimum wage (RM1,500 -RM2,000) across the board for all wage-earners be expected to be implemented. This pathetic and evil Government will fall even if it grants the wishes of the people because it only cares for political power to enrich itself above everything else. Now it does not agree to the declaration of party funds but questions the opposition. I mean how stupid they think the Rakyat are?