KUCHING: Sarawak Patriots Association (SPA) thinks that the increase of minimum wage or allowance, salaries and productivity must go hand in hand.
Its chairman Datuk John Lau said this in view of a call by the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) for a minimum of RM500 as cost of living allowance (Cola) under the national Budget 2020 proposal.
“The Malaysian economy is down and has adversely affected the livelihood of the B40 and M40 groups. The downturn has also affected businesses. People need to tighten their belts to go through the difficult times,” he said.
Nevertheless, he thinks it is good to get both the private and public sectors to ask their workers to do multi-tasking to enhance the incomes of their organisations in order to earn more salaries for themselves.
“Imposing employers to pay extra RM500 without increasing productivity during the current economic downturn needs to be discouraged,” he stressed.
During the economic downturn, SPA urged the federal government to consider exempting employees from personal taxes by 12 months.
“And we hope the 2020 budget would take this into account as it could help employees with cash liquidity,” he said.
On increasing the aged of retirement to 65 as suggested by MTUC, he said SPA supports the call.
“If people can work when they are 60 years and above, why not? People in this age range are often skillful and experienced – something that can’t be taught in school,” he said.
He pointed out that due to improved medical care, men and women are becoming healthier and can still work even after they’ve reached 60 years of age.
“In the USA, the retirement age is 67; in the United Kingdom it is 65 and 62 in Singapore.
“It is timely for the government to review workers retirement age upward to 66 years. In China most politicians are 60 years old and above, and many of our politicians are also in their 60s,” stressed Lau.
