Penang MTUC says govt is beholden to raise minimum wage to RM1500

GEORGE TOWN: A Penang Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) official has claimed that the federal government has to raise the national minimum wage base to RM1,500 as promised by the Pakatan Harapan coalition previously.
Its secretary K. Veeriah said that it is the union's view that until and unless there is a political will to transform the living condition of the working population through affirmative intervention, workers will continue to stay put in the low to the middle segment of society.
"If Singapore and South Korea can guide their workers towards breaking the low wage bubble, I don't see why we cannot do so," Veeriah said.
He blamed the intake of foreigners as the reason why wages remained suppressed.
Veeriah, a veteran unionist, said that some of the arguments by the Government in revising the wage to only RM1,050 ran contrary to the union's stance.
He posed two questions to the government – how does the government's debt servicing and expenditure impact on the minimum wage in the private sector, and how much of the wages in the private sector does the government pay?
Civil servants start off now with RM1,200 minimum wage, and many of them are also entitled for the cost of living allowance (COLA), but such allowances are not accorded inn the private sector, said Veeriah.
And how does the private sector's wages tie in with the competitive rate of the country, he asked.
"Are we to continue to struggle in the face of ever increasing costs of living just so that we remain competitive. Are the workers of the nation supposed to remain entrapped in hardship to ensure their employers remained competitive."
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng when asked about this matter, referred to the Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegeran for comments.