KUCHING: Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) thanked the federal government for taking into consideration the challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in determining the RM1,700 new minimum wages.
“MEF is thankful to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the government that understand and take into account the challenges faced by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and give reasonable grace periods for employers to implement the new minimum wages especially for the micro enterprises with less than five employees.
“MEF also thanks Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong for being close to the stakeholders, employers and unions and having a real feel of the challenges on the ground,” said its president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman.
In light of this, he also expressed his gratitude to the National Wages Consultative Council (NWCC) for facilitating the meetings for members of NWCC to discuss and deliberated these issues before unanimously reaching a common position.
According to him, the NWCC had submitted its recommendations to the government on the review of the minimum wage rate.
He disclosed that technical details of the review was undertaken by the Technical Committee of the NWCC which entailed gathering proposals from various stakeholders, including employers and employees.
“It is critical for the stakeholders to understand that the majority of the businesses in Malaysia are MSMEs. Even among the MSMEs there are differences between urban business and rural businesses.
“Therefore, any decision to review minimum wages must take into account all these factors. Minimum wage has never been an issue with MNCs, GLCs, GLICs and large local companies. The challenge is with the MSMEs,” he stressed.
Following this, he urged employers which can afford higher salaries to pay above minimum wage.
“No one should use minimum wage as an excuse to pay based on the minimum wage. It is only ethical and good practice for employers to remunerate their employees based on their employees’ and their businesses performances,” he said.
