Ensure win-win minimum wage, KKCCCI urges

KOTA KINABALU: Kota Kinabalu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KKCCCI) president Datuk Michael Lui yesterday welcomed Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s assurance of fair treatment to the East Malaysian states, including standardizing minimum wage across Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak.

He was also grateful towards Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal for empathizing with employers’ pressure to cope with the minimum wage.

Lui said KKCCCI had always been supportive of the implementation of minimum wage.

However, he urged the government to consider both the interests of employers and employees before another raise was implemented.

“The government should ensure a win-win solution that ensures employers could cope with the raise in minimum wage.”

He also hoped that the higher minimum wage would result in enhanced productivity.

Lui said the government should not rush into raising the minimum wage to the proposed RM1,500 per month before our economy had a chance to recover.

“We hope the raise would be maintained at RM1,100 or below to allow employers to readjust their production costs and come up with solutions.”

He said increasing the minimum wage to RM1,500 would cause production costs to rise.

As a result, he said businesses would lose their competitiveness, while the people would also have to bear with higher living costs as well.

“We do not wish to see small and medium enterprises (SMEs) resort to closing down due to their inability to cope with the minimum wage.

“This will drive up our unemployment rate and affect the state’s economy.”