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By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Aug 26: A minimum salary of RM1,500 will become the baseline for implementing the Progressive Wage Policy, says Malaysian Minister of Human Resources V. Sivakumar.
“RM1,500 will become the baseline. It cannot drop from RM1,500.
“We want to become progressive; if the salary is lower than RM1,500, it is ‘regressive’,” he told a press conference after attending a dialogue session on labour held at Raia Hotel and Convention Centre today.
Sivakumar further opined that the minimum salary of RM1,500 is already considered too low, especially in the present context of the high cost of living, of which any employer suggesting to give lower than that would seem unreasonable.
He also mentioned that the Progressive Wage Policy is the better version of the Minimum Wage Policy following some complaints that the previous policy did not consider workers’ productivity.
He shared an exemplary context of a worker named A who is more productive than another person named B, but they were both paid the same amount of salary—unfair wage distribution.
However, Sivakumar noted that not all employers would agree to adopt the improved Progressive Wage Policy as this policy depends on training, skills, knowledge, and various factors that would increase productivity, which is determined by the employer and employees.
Additionally, the immediate implementation of the newly introduced policy could affect the cottage businesses through their operation costs.
“That is why we do not want to implement the policy immediately; it is voluntary presently.
“However, the employers who adopt this Progressive Wage Policy will have an advantage of attracting employees to work with them,” he added.
Moving forward, he said the federal government will deliberate on the policy’s implementation mechanism in stages and explore the need to allocate funds as an incentive for this policy, which will be determined based on the government’s financial position and policy requirements.
Also present at the dialogue session were the Sarawak Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring), Datuk Gerawat Gala and Sarawak Manpower Department director Awang Raduan Awang Omar. — DayakDaily
