One fundamental problem with the Malaysian Trade Union Congress(MTUC) and many Malaysian Trade Unions is that it only seeks to LOBBY the government of the day - and that too just the Prime Minister, relevant Minister, relevant Ministry and departments...
They do not even seem to lobby Parliament - i.e. the Parliamentarians(MP, Senators) or the State Legislative Assembly ...By not highlighting worker and union concerns to these different politicians and political parties, it 'cripples' worker and union struggle - because without so doing, we cannot get other political parties and politicians in joining the struggle for better union and worker rights in Malaysia...
Likewise, trade unions and workers fails to lobby the people of Malaysia - to highlight to Malaysians their issues and concerns...inviting the Malaysian public to join them in the struggle for better worker and trade union rights in Malaysia...Many do not know what changes the MTUC and unions want...what are they fighting for? If people do not know, how can they support union and worker struggles?????
Looking at the Malaysian Trade Union website, what are even the main issues that Malaysian unions are concerned about - what changes they are wanting in law/practice, etc is unclear...
We know that they are fighting for a HIGHER Minimum wage - is that all.
A recent statement at the MTUC website - reveals a statement commenting on the Barisan Nasional manifesto - asking a review of the promise to increase minimum wage to RM1,500...
BUT where is the statement by MTUC commenting on what is in the Pakatan Harapan's manifesto...or the other Opposition parties' manifestos...
Back to MTUC's recent statement, which really is not just for the BN...even though the title says... 'MTUC urges BN to review manifesto on Minimum wage'
Employers and even the Malaysian government is infamous to linking 'productivity' to wages and wage increase, which is really 'bull shit'.
A worker does what he/she is instructed to do...productivity and/or profits really must be the responsibility of employers - it depends very much on how they market their products and services. Market - well, that depends on creativity and skill of employers...
If workers are being paid on piece meal manner - i.e. if they stitch and make a T-shirt, they will be paid RM1 per T-shirt, and RM10 for 10 T-shirt. But alas, in most companies production is no longer dependent on individual workers, but on a whole group of different workers....Maybe, then workers should be paid part of the profits - maybe 40% of the profits should go to the workers...
But, then there is no such policy about 'profit sharing'.
In the hotel/restaurant industry, where workers over and above their basic wage is entitled to service charges - a percentage charged to customers/purchasers of product and/or services...so the more sales, the higher the worker gets. Not profit sharing - but income depends on the amount that customers pay for the service/products at the workplace...Really, there should also be a further profit sharing in hotels/restaurants - maybe 40% of profits should really go back to workers...and owners get 60%...which seems fair.
Today, recently a study of smartphones, revealed that labour cost - is just about 5% of the total final cost.Without workers, nothing get produced...is 5% of the final profits be given to workers...or should it be a more just amount like 40-50% of profits?
There really should be a basic wage for workers - and this reasonably should be sufficient for a decent living, and in Kuala Lumpur, that should not be less than RM2,700...For some other town or area, it may be lesser. Malaysian workers seem to just survive with what they earn - but recent revelation of undernourishment and poverty amongst children is a great concern.
As such, fixing one minimum wage for all is not a good system. In India, minimum wages is fixed differently for different area/region depending very much on the cost of reasonable living in different areas. It also looks at different kinds of work - manual workers entitled to a higher minimum wage...yes the 3D workers should really be entitled to a higher minimum wage...as less people are interested in doing such dirty dangerous work...
Profits alone cannot be a factor for some companies not making products that will be immediately sold to the consumer...they usually make components that will be sent to another different company in the supply chain...and another and another...who may finally make and package the final product to be sold to the end user... So, on paper when it is making products for another in its supply chain(especially one that ultimately belongs to the same parent company), there may be little or no profits shown in its books ...and as such, using even company profits may not do justice to workers as a means to calculate entitled wages/income...
Wages of workers need to be increased annually as expenditure of individual workers and their families naturally increases in time ...but alas, in Malaysia, since the UMNO-BN government allowed the use of precarious forms of employment - employment security is not there for many workers - they are employed for a year, then terminated...and have to go around looking for another job which may pay the same or less. Security of tenure for workers is lost - as Malaysian government failed to protect Malaysian workers allowing employers to use unlimited number of short-term contract workers, when the government by law, could have limited the percentage of use of short-term contract workers...ensuring that most of Malaysian workers will get regular employment until retirement(or at least until retrenchment and/or business closure)...
Through the 'contractor for labour' system, factories/businesses do not even have to employ employees - they use workers supplied by these 'contractors' and pay the contractors directly, who tend pay the workers the balance after the contractor takes their profits. So, the workers get low wages - so much more if the factory had paid them all the money paid for the work done.
Migrant workers today are cheaper than a local worker - So, employers will prefer a migrant worker to a local worker. In Singapore, the levy that an employer has to pay for a migrant worker is equal to the additional sum he has to pay for a local worker - being the month EPF/SOCSO contributions....The UMNO-BN government can be seen as more bothered about Employers than their own Malaysian workers...and it is government policies that have kept wages low...not just low...but also reduced in terms of real wages - when the Ringgit fell in value and cost of living increased.
Sadly, Pakatan Harapan and some other political parties have nothing much about employment issues - an important issue for all Malaysian workers....WHY? Are they not bothered about the Malaysian worker and their rights...their well-being.
For public servants, the UMNO-BN government, and even some Opposition State governments, seem to believe that just giving an increased bonus this year will ensure that these workers 'can be bought' and will vote the incumbent government ....Will workers in Malaysia be happy with this 'bonus', and vote in incumbent governments or will be better and be more concerned for the future well-being of Malaysia and ALL its people ...and vote in the better MP/ADUN AND GOVERNMENT?
We await MTUC's statement about the Pakatan manifesto...PAS manifesto...PRM manifesto...Warisan manifesto...etc...since they have already made a comment on the BN(a political coalition contesting in the upcoming GE14)...
Is the MTUC only bothered about one political coalition? ...Their statement comes out after Parliament is dissolved ...and thus, it cannot be said to be simply addressed to the government of the day...for what we have now is simply a 'caretaker government'...
MTUC urges BN to review manifesto on Minimum wage
MTUC urges employers and politicians to stop misleading Malaysians by
propagating that productivity is to be used as a yardstick to determine
minimum wage.
The recent BN manifesto to fix RM1500 as minimum wage for the next
five years does not correspond with RMK11, Vision 2020 and the Bank
Negara Malaysia (BNM) Annual Report on living wage.
In relation to productivity and increase in income, BNM has clarified
that there is ‘economic’ argument that supports increase in income of
workers.
Similarly, the International Labour Organization (ILO) argues that
unless lower and middle income workers earn enough, their spending will
be restricted. Their inability to spend will stifle the demand for
products and limit social spending contribution toward the GDP of the
country.
The argument from certain sections of society that wage increase will
impact economic growth has no substance and is a convenient political
tool for some politicians. Naturally, irresponsible employers relying on
this baseless inference take undue advantage to exploit workers. That
is why for many years Malaysian workers’ salaries have been stagnant and
does not commensurate with the country’s impressive economic growth.
The minimum and living wages are viewed as benchmarks, respectively
for workers to survive and the income to secure a minimum acceptable
living standard. Therefore, productivity has no relevance to be used as a
yardstick for neither, the minimum wage nor the living wage.
Naturally, the above reasons also would have been the justifications
for the BNM to reveal in its Annual Report that “Malaysians may not be
poor but it is evident that Malaysians are rich in borrowings”. Be that
as it may, MTUC appreciates and endorses BNM’s researches and its
outcome to reveal such factual position which is the reality that we
observe in the country.
In addition, the law that stipulates a review of Minimum wage every
two years was not complied when it was due on 1 Jan 2015. Consequently,
the workers were deprived of a review on the minimum wage which was
delayed for 18 months.
Therefore, workers in Malaysia especially the B40 and M40 are in dire
need of a government which will draw up economic policies to facilitate
equitable share of wealth to all Malaysian and honour such policies.
In this circumstances, the BN manifesto on minimum wage needs to be
reviewed otherwise the said manifesto will be seen to be undermining
workers consistently and may have deficit in trust. -MTUC Website
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