PETALING JAYA: Budget 2010 was aimed at making Malaysia a ‘high-income society’ but MTUC has expressed disappointment that minimum wage was not ad-dressed.

Its president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud said: “Income levels must be raised in view of the rise in the cost of living in the country.”

Syed Shahir said MTUC would continue to push the Government to introduce a minimum wage of RM900 for private sector workers in the country.

Meanwhile, ASLI’s Centre of Public Policy Studies chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said: “On one hand the Prime Minister wants to raise income but there is no provision for a minimum wage in the budget.”

Navaratnam also said that the fastest way to raise income without going through the pangs of economic transformation was by introducing a minimum wage.

He said a minimum wage would also help fight poverty and make a breakthrough in the present mid-income trap that it faces.

“The minimum wage can be based on the poverty threshold of RM700 a month,” he suggested.

He also said at present many shunned low-income jobs as they had to work so hard for so little.

“Because of this, some engage in undesirable activities such as crime in order to get a quick buck.

“Also, the dependence on foreign workers can be reduced if there is a minimum wage that provides for a decent standard of living,” he added.

Earlier, Navaratnam had written an open letter to the government calling for the introduction of a basic wage.

Citizen Journalists Christine Chan and R. Vijay Kumar met Syed Shahir bin Syed Mohamud, President of Malaysian Trades Union Congress to seek explanations and advice.

This video clip is Part 2 of our first video on our Legal Rights Awareness Campaign on the Malaysian Employment Laws.

Video by R.Vijay Kumar and Christine Chan, Citizen Journalist.

See the video at http://www.malaysiakini.tv/video/17684/malaysian-employment-laws-part-1.html (Part 1)

and http://www.malaysiakini.tv/video/17691.html. (Part 2).

Oleh Sazarina Shahrim (Berita Harian)

Cuepacs mahu gajib bawah RM3,000 dikategori golongan daif di bandar

KUALA LUMPUR: Kira-kira 600,000 kakitangan awam berpendapatan kurang RM3,000 sebulan dijangka bakal menerima bantuan kerajaan untuk menambah pendapatan.

Presiden Cuepacs, Omar Osman, berkata mereka yang merangkumi 45 peratus daripada 1.2 kakitangan awam itu yang kebanyakannya bekerja di bandar, memang tertekan dengan kos sara hidup tinggi sehingga ada yang terpaksa melakukan kerja sampingan untuk menambah pendapatan.

Beliau yakin dengan kepemimpinan kerajaan kini dapat membasmi segera kemiskinan, terutama di bandar.

“Kita juga berharap pemberian RM100 juta dalam bentuk saham amanah percuma kepada rakyat miskin di bandar seperti diumumkan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, merangkumi kakitangan awam.

“Kakitangan awam yang mempunyai gaji bawah RM3,000 tiada simpanan masa depan dan ini memberi kesan kepada mereka selepas bersara,” katanya.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 (Bernama) — The Malaysian Trades Union Congress wants the public transport fare hike announced yesterday to be reviewed as it would burden the lower income group.

Its president, Syed Shahrir Syed Mohamud said it was the wrong time for a fare increase as the workers were badly affected by the economic slowdown.

“Their take home pay have reduced as they are not allowed to do overtime, there is no pay rise, some had their salaries cut while others are out of work.

“Imagine how difficult it is for parents to fork out more money for school and public bus fares for their children,” he said in a statement Friday.

Syed Shahrir said he regretted that the government did not seek the views of organisations representing the workers and the lower income group before announcing the fare hike.

The public transport fares will go up to 30 per cent from Aug 1.

Apakah yang bakal diumum oleh Menteri Sumber Manusia mengenai gaji minimum untuk 4 sektor tersebut? Berapakah kadar yang akan ditetapkan? Bila ianya akan dikuatkuasakan? Tentunya sebahagian daripada kita berminat untuk mengetahuinya. Sama-samalah kita tunggu walaupun kita tidak bersetuju dengan keputusan yang dibuat oleh pemerintah mengenai gaji minimum ini.

PETALING JAYA: The MTUC is calling on the authorities to implement effective measures to protect all frontline workers, especially those from the aviation and healthcare sectors, against the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

MTUC president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud said employers must also be committed to giving assistance to workers who have been placed under home or hospital quarantine as well as their families.

“If clinic staff or airport workers and flight attendants are quarantined for coming in contact with the two infected patients, they should be paid the full salary,” said Syed Shahir.

“We are very concerned with the outbreak of various diseases in several parts of the country and want the authorities to seriously look into practices associated with the preservation of good health among the general public,” he said.

Syed Shahir expressed the hope that employers would educate workers on how to improve personal hygiene and keeping their work environment clean at all times.

In Port Klang, port workers expressed concern for the lack of protective measures against the virus outbreak, reports Bernama.

Union of Employees of Port Ancillary Services Supplies (Unepass) secretary A. Balasubramaniam said thousands of frontliners serving incoming ships from all over the world had not been given adequate protection.

The Health Ministry, he claimed, was concentrating more on airports and other passenger entry points and gave low priority to ports.

“There are no screening machines or stringent health checks at the ports, thus workers and ship crew are coming in contact with each other without proper screening,” he said, adding it was causing concern to the port community now that Malaysia had two confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1).

Balasubramaniam, who is also MTUC vice-president, called on the ministry not to neglect the health and welfare of port workers and issue proper guidelines and information to them.

He said the port authorities and the Health Department needed to conduct intensive campaigns among port workers to increase awareness on the disease and other communicable diseases that could be brought into the country by foreign ship crew members.

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) wants the workers’ demands to be seriously looked into and solutions implemented.
For starters, the congress which turns 60 this year wants to meet Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who assumed the country’s leadership recently.

“The MTUC is prepared to have a dialogue with the new leadership on workers’ issues,” said congress president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud after attending the MTUC national-level Workers Day celebrations at the Subang Jaya Municipal Council Sports Complex here yesterday.

He added that the current government leadership should be “caring” to the workers’ needs in the country.

Both Syed Shahir and MTUC secretary-general G. Rajasekaran were of the view that there were several crucial issues which need to be addressed to improve the welfare and the well-being of the 11.2 million workers nationwide.
In an oath taken by about 1,500 MTUC members, they asked for among others:

- Removal of threats and oppression of workers;

- Implement workers’ rights in line with the provision in the Federal Constitution;

- Recognise and adopt the 1998 International Labour Organisation resolution by reinstating the right of negotiation with the civil service;

- Create a law guaranteeing a minimum wage of RM900;

- Respect workers’ rights by ceasing all kinds of discrimination;

- Expand the social protection net to workers who lose their jobs;

- Review outdated labour laws; and,

- Respect occupational safety and health of workers by enhancing awareness of the relevant laws.

Meanwhile, both Syed Shahir and Rajasekaran also want the immediate setting up of a retrenchment fund.

“This is more important now due to the uncertain economic situation,” said Rajasekaran.

Syed Shahir called for the government to set aside RM500 million to set up the fund.

“We have been asking for the fund to be set up for the last 10 years. It is only for those who have lost their jobs and for no other purpose,” he said, adding that the fund should be set up immediately.

Syed Shahir said that if workers were truly the backbone of the country’s progress and development, then their rights need to be acted and implemented upon.

In Penang , the state MTUC asked the government to help workers currently displaced and retrenched by their respective employers to find alternative jobs.

More than 100 workers, especially displaced and retrenched workers, took part in a one-kilometre walk from the Penang Bird Park to the Sunway township.

The participants also distributed more than 3,000 leaflets containing the MTUC’s recent demands to the government.

1 May 2009

In observance of 1st May, Labour Day, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) reveals its initial findings on community monitoring of pesticide use and practices that indicate adverse impacts on agricultural workers, peasants and farmers, and appeals to governments of Asian developing countries to address the impacts of pesticides on workers’ health.

Around 25 million agricultural workers are being poisoned in developing countries according to the 1990 WHO World Health Statistics Quarterly. “However, such figures reflect only the most severe cases, and are likely to significantly underestimate unintentional pesticide poisonings, because they are based primarily on hospital registries.” says Dr. Meriel Watts, PAN Aotearoa New Zealand. She furthers, “Underreporting is endemic in all countries but especially in the poorer ones where few workers have access to medical personnel, and often symptoms are not recognised by either victims or medical personnel as resulting from pesticides.”

“The availability and unrelenting use of highly hazardous pesticides including WHO Class 1 pesticides by agricultural workers, peasants and farmers clearly shows how governments are more concerned with the industries making profit than the labourers’ rights to health and, safe working conditions and environment.” says Sarojeni V. Rengam, Executive Director of PAN AP. She adds, “The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’ s Code of Conduct has been in place since 1985 and it is really disturbing to find out that inappropriate incentives or gifts continue to be given out to encourage the purchase of pesticides, especially highly hazardous pesticides.”

PAN AP’s report entitled “Community Monitoring of Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) Implementation on Pesticide Use and Practices” is a compilation of studies implemented by eleven organisations in eight Asian countries – Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. 1306 respondents were interviewed and more than 118 retail stores were surveyed, with 55 human health incident reports gathered.

Based on the initial findings, PAN AP recommends the development of a global partnership to rapidly reduce and eliminate highly hazardous pesticides and for governments and industry to ensure that pesticides that require Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are not registered, sold or used in developing countries in which the conditions of use are such that these pesticides can not be used safely, in particular because of a lack of, or inadequacy in, or inability to purchase PPE.

The report indicates that:

1. Highly hazardous pesticides are being used at diverse sites throughout Asia. 51% of respondents from Thrissur, Kerala (India) have used methyl parathion (WHO Class 1a) and 36% of respondents from Cambodia have used pesticides containing monocrotophos (WHO Class 1) that is banned in the country.

2. Precautions taken, especially the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), are lacking and awareness of specific pesticides and hazards is low, putting users at risk. Manual backpack spraying and the use of bare hands in handling pesticides were observed in the study sites.

3. Knowledge and information is not reliably passed on to the user via labels. The survey of retail stores shows that their personnel are not consistently advising agricultural workers, peasants and farmers about the hazards of pesticides.

4. Pesticide advertisements and retail store practices were documented that are in violation of the Code of Conduct set by UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The agricultural shops of Wonosobo district (Indonesia) offer an annual prize if farmers buy more than Rp60,000 with the prizes of electronic home appliances, motorcycle and even a ticket for a couple to go to Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca).

The report and recommendations are based on the initial findings of the Community Monitoring and International Advocacy Project in Asia and will be presented at the Second Session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management in Geneva from 11th – 15th May 2009. It hopes to contribute in monitoring the progress towards SAICM’s overall objective that “by 2020, chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment.” Details of the full report can be found at http://www.panap. net/uploads/ media/monitorgre p.pdf.

“We have been calling for a minimum monthly wage of RM900 as well as RM300 in cost of living allowance,” he told the New Straits Times in conjunction with Labour Day on Friday.

He said they have been pursuing the matter since the 1950s.

Another urgent matter is the setting up of a retrenchment fund.
“We have been asking for a retrenchment fund since 1998 but it has yet to be realised.”

He also called for a review of the amendments to the Trade Unions Act 1959 and Industrial Relations Act 1967, which were gazetted last year.

The MTUC had said the amendments would result, among others, in the Industrial Court’s loss of independence, allowing for easier union busting, promoting the removal of union activists and labour flexibility and the reduction of wages and other benefits.

“We want these to be reviewed.”

He also also called for the security of tenure for workers in the country, which involved having permanent instead of contractual jobs.

“This is more relevant now because of the uncertainty brought on by the recession.”

The MTUC will hold its annual labour gathering at the USJ sports complex in Subang Jaya on Friday.

It is good to note that the Employers Federation and the MTUC had some common views on stretching the retirement age for private sector employees to 60 or 65 in line with the practice in other countries, so that we could utilise more local human capital and not be over-dependent on cheap foreign labour. Hopefully they can also agree on other issues, too.

The arguments of MTUC president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud (“MTUC speaks out for workers”) that national development has been held back because we do not have a minimum wage also merits consideration, although the amount of RM900 in basic and RM300 in COLA suggested by MTUC may be a little unrealistic.

Perhaps the current employment and economic scenario, coupled with the aspirations of the nation to develop its human resources to a more competitive level, should persuade us to re-examine the minimum wage issue.

The Government is retraining thousands of workers, and future workers are expected to have better training and skills. The added value of such competencies in workers should be reflected in decent wages and benefits to maintain high motivation.

But without a floor level there would be no benchmark for proper wage rates, and the free market would continue to encourage competition in engaging cheap labour to provide low-priced goods and services.

Before a minimum wage law came into force in 1999 in UK, the employers and the Conservative Party were strongly against it, but now no longer oppose it.

There were assumptions that minimum wage would cause job losses and unemployment, but the experience in developed countries shows that it reduced redundancies, increased workers’ productivity and made businesses more competitive.

The Low Pay Commission of UK has consistently reviewed the minimum pay since 1999 and has found no evidence of any damaging economic effects. The International Labour Organisation also supports the view that there is no linkage between unemployment and minimum pay.

There are studies suggesting that minimum pay should be in place when more trained workers are available for employment so that there is an equitable basis for providing decent minimum standards.

Otherwise we may be just wasting the money on training and development and placing workers in a low priced job-market.

What is needed is a principle based minimum pay which responds to social and economic needs and would also promote the Government’s strategy.

KAY ARR,
George Town.