Move to standardise minimum wage throughtout the nation gets thumbs-up

MIRI: The federal government’s decision to standardise the minimum wage nationwide effective January 1 next year had received positive feedback from local leaders here.

United People’s Party ( UPP) Pujut branch’s chairman Bruce Chai welcomed the move to introduce the same minimum wage throughout the country not like what was practised in the past.

“Underthepreviousgovernment, there was different minimum wage for Sabah and Sarawak compared to those in Peninsular Malaysia.

“I believed the announcement on equal minimum wage is part of efforts to alleviate and bring up the standard of living as well as increase the people’s spending power,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday when asked for comment on the announcement.

Chai thus called on the business community to adapt to the change in minimum wage which will take effect in January next year.

Headdedthattherewereconcerns expressed by certain quarters with regard to the standardisation of the minimum wage in that it will incur additional operating cost to the business community and force them to increase the price of goods which in turn will contribute to inflation.

“There is a need for the government to make such adjustment to the minimum wage in effort to raise the people’s standard of living particularly those in the low income group.

“However, the process of minimum wage adjustment should be done properly,” he said.

Such adjustment he said should be also extended to other aspects for Sarawak such as equal opportunity for development both in the infrastructure and economic areas.

“Using population as a criteria which had been mentioned the last few weeks may not necessary work well in Sarawak.

“Sarawak has a vast land area and still lags behind in in terms of road and air connectivity as well as industrial development for economic growth. If we want to talk about equal policy, there must be equal development for both Sarawak and Sabah,” he added.

Meanwhile Pakatan Harapan ( PH) National women chief for Sarawak Affairs Voon Shiak Ni viewed the decision to standardise the minimum wage nationwide as a fair raise which is affordable to small-scale companies.

“Having said that, of course employers are encouraged to pay more if they can afford better wages for their staff.

“By setting the minimum wage at that amount, it is a good move to ensure that workers shall be paid at least a RM1,000 monthly as many blue- collar workers are still paid below this figure.”

However she pointed out that standardising minimum wage takes into consideration a lot of factors especially those involving the private sector as it can be a survival issue for both employers and employees.

“If it is too high, then small companies cannot afford to engage more staff and may lead to retrenchment.

“Besides that, the higher operating costs may be included into the costs of goods and services resulting in a price hike.”

Besides that, she said the domino effect of imposing a higher minimum wage can lead to hike in prices of goods and services and retrenchment if the nation’s economy faces a slowdown.

“I agree that a slow but steady increase in minimum wage over the years is good and more practical while the nation makes efforts to revive the economy.”

On another note, she stressed that the employers also need to be alerted that they need to ensure their employees are adequately paid for their services and to refrain from all forms of discrimination or overworked their workers.

“We have received complaints from some workers that employers are not bothered about their wellbeing and some employers even cut the pay of their workers for being late for work for ten minutes,” she said.