MEF urges Govt to review certain policies to cut costs

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) is urging the Government to review certain policies to help bring down costs for employers and reduce the need to lay off workers amidst an economic slowdown.

They include temporarily allowing employers to reduce contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) by 1% to 2% from the current 13%, and reduce the Human Resource Development Fund contribution from 1% to 0.5%.

MEF president Tan Sri Azman Shah Haron appealed to the Government to postpone the implementation of policies that would incur more cost on employers.

Speaking at the launch of the 6th MEF Salary Survey 2016 yesterday, he said the survey covering 280 companies revealed that 30% had retrenched, temporarily laid off, or offered voluntary and mass separation schemes.

The bulk of the layoffs involved the financial services, oil and gas, and manufacturing sectors.

MEF said 31,460 employees were retrenched as at September this year compared with 44,000 last year, adding that more workers were expected to be laid off by end of the year and next year.