Dashed hopes by days as minimum wage deferred again

PETALING JAYA: It was a major shock and disappointment to employees to find out that days before the RM1,500 minimum wage was supposed to kick in, the implementation has now been delayed by six months.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Mohd Effendy Abdul Ghani said the minimum wage implementation for companies employing fewer than five employees was already postponed once before and should not have been delayed again.

“It was a major surprise to us because it was supposed to have been implemented in just a few more days.

“We are disappointed and many B40 employees are disappointed by this matter. The second delay is unfair.

“The postponement has been made since May, which means that SMEs have already known that on Jan 1 there will be an increase in the minimum wage for their employees.

“Employers are aware and should have been prepared. They had eight months to prepare for this, which is since May.

“If you ask them, they’ll always say they’re not ready. If you ask again in July next year if they’re finally ready to implement the minimum wage, they’ll still say they’re not ready,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Mohd Effendy described the delay as an excessive discrimination of these micro enterprise workers, who are burdened by the same high cost of living as their counterparts who are working for bigger companies.

He said the government should have gone ahead with the Jan 1 launch date as planned as it had already been gazetted.

He said instead of delaying the implementation by another six months, the government should help the companies that are struggling to pay the minimum wage by opening applications for minimum wage subsidies.

“Wage subsidies are among the things that should be done to help these small businesses that are unable to survive and pay higher minimum wage for their employees,” he said.

Mohd Effendy added that the minimum wage subsidy programme should also be done by vetting companies properly due to the alleged abuse of the wage subsidy programme during the pandemic.

Yesterday, Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar announced that the implementation of the RM1,500 minimum wage rule for companies employing fewer than five employees had been postponed from Jan 1 to July.

He said the decision was made after taking into account the readiness of such companies.

The Minimum Wage Order (PMG) 2022 came into effect on May 1 this year but a postponement until Jan 1 was given to employers who employed fewer than five workers.