MTUC wants to meet PM over minimum wage

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has revived its call to the government to set a compulsory monthly minimum wage of RM900.

In a statement today, secretary-general G Rajasekaran said the group is seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to pursue the matter.

This comes on the heels of silence on a five-page memorandum to Abdullah in last June, urging him to accede to the minimum wage demand to protect workers from a large pool of foreign workers competing for jobs.

“MTUC is disappointed that the prime minister (has not responded) to (our) proposal up to now,” Rajasekaran said in the statement.

Last August, some 30,000 workers staged a nationwide protest, after a similar one held a month earlier.

Rajasekaran said that, with the lukewarm response from the Abdullah-led federal government, the MTUC will now seek the support of “labour friendly state governments”.

“A fair minimum wage is important to ensure decent work and improved standard of living. If government is sincere in their efforts to eradicate poverty, setting a minimum wage will serve as an important first step,” he noted.

Rajasekaran pointed out that the MTUC has highlighted a series of cases where foreign workers brought in by manpower recruiters had been deprived of work and earning.

The MTUC, he said, wants the state governments to abolish the practice of allowing recruiting agencies to import foreign workers and hired them out to employers, saying this system “promotes corruption”.

“Although the home ministry is fully aware of abuses and exploitative working conditions practised by recruiting agents, it continues to permit the outsourcing system. We will urge the prime minister to review this unacceptable practice,” he added.