Link minimum wage to productivity, says Mapa
KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Agricultural Producers Association (Mapa) reiterated that the country’s increment in minimum wages should be linked to productivity.
“We view the current statutory minimum wages could further deteriorate the classical unemployment rate in the region. Unlike other forms of unemployment, classical unemployment is actuated by wages being too high relative to productivity,” said Mapa treasurer Ho Dua Tiam.
“We’re not opposing the minimum wage law. It is the way the salary is being packaged. We firmly believe that for labour intensive industries, the mismatch in employment should be effectively addressed by improving productivity,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Effective July 1 this year, the government had raised monthly minimum wage from RM900 to RM1,000 for Peninsular Malaysia and from RM800 to RM920 for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.
Ho noted Mapa members fully complied with the provisions of the Minimum Wages Order 2016 by signing four variation agreements with the National Union of Plantation Workers.
Mapa represents close to 200 plantation companies in Peninsular Malaysia, with estates spanning across a million hectares. Its members employ some 130,000 workers in the fields, of which more than three quarters are foreigners.
In complying with Chapter 19 of the Tran-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the government has committed to amend existing labour laws.
Following this, Mapa has concluded four new agreements with the National Union of Plantation Workers covering harvesters, loaders, rubber tappers, palm oil mill employees, field and other general employees and fringe benefits for almost 170,000 workers in Peninsular Malaysia. The wage increment ranged between 10 and 13 per cent.
The plantation sector is now facing acute shortage of workers. “We have no choice, but to go on being functionally reliant on foreign workers because locals are not willing to work in the estates,” said Ho.