'Minimum wage top priority in Pakatan budget'

Minimum wage is among the issues that will receive topmost priority in Pakatan Rakyat's alternative budget, expected to be unveiled before the government’s 2012 national budget in October.

Announcing this today after the opposition coalition's third working committee meeting on the matter, PAS Kuala Selangor MP Dzulkefly Ahmad (right) said they are in the midst of fixing what minimum wage should be.

"We need to urgently address the minimum wage issue; it is important to (stress the) message that minimum wage is based on productivity," Dzulkefly said.

He said Pakatan’s initiative was different from the federal government's move to tackle income disparity by establishing a National Minimum Wage Council (NMWC) to look into setting the wage floor, which Pakatan sees as a “non-committal step”.

The NMWC is a considerable "step backwards", said Dzulkefly, as at this juncture civil society groups have already mapped out what should be done.

'Government hestitant about mininum wage'

"What we need is a commitment that they (the government) are committed, but they are hesitant in even announcing what the quantum of minimum wage would be.

"However, we have discussed it and will be presenting it to the presidential council after which we will organise another round of consultations before finalising matters," Dzulkefly said.

Also present at the meeting today were MPs Liew Ching Tong (DAP-Bukit Bendera), Tian Chua (PKR-Batu), PKR's strategic director Rafizi Ramli and Negeri Sembilan PAS deputy commissioner Rosli Yaakob.

Pakatan's 2012 budget, called "Prosperity for All" (Kesejahteraan Untuk Semua), aims to look at not only "big spending but sustainable growth" and "redistributive justice".

At its previous budget meeting held, Dzulkefly had said the coalition would also focus on addressing the needs of 60 percent of Malaysian households in which the main breadwinner earns less than RM1,500 a month.