Minimum wage, in the middle of review, according to Muhyiddin

According to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the minimum wage rate is still in the middle of review in order to ensure that the employee’s income continue to be relevant with the current economic conditions.

The prime minister has expressed how the government is taking action to protect the rights of the workers, particularly the issue of the minimum wage.

In a local television broadcast today, he said in his Worker’s Day address that he was hoping that all the parties urge individuals who wish to be heard to get involved and voice their views and suggestions through the provided platform.

He also mentioned that it was part of the government’s efforts in the previous year to aid the workers in fighting against the pandemic’s repercussions through its three-pronged strategy.

The first strategy was to retain the current jobs, the second was to protect the rights of the workers and the third was to create more job opportunities. He also added that the government is already in the process of improving and amending labor laws particularly the Employment Act 1955 where the government is seeking to broaden the scope of the law’s application.

Muhyiddin said that this will include all the workers working in the private sector regardless of their salary, the extension of maternity leave to 90 days, granting three-day paternity leave, lowering down the working hours from 48 hours a week to 45 hours and the introduction of a flexible work schedule.

The government’s effort in reducing the unemployment rate has also been mentioned by the prime minister as well as the launching and implementation of a national job matching and employment services namely the MYFutureJobs, UpskillMalaysia and MySTEP portals.

He also said that in efforts to increase the workers in the country who are skilled and to gradually decrease the employment of foreign workers, the government will be introducing the Convertible Loan Policy Programme for Skills Training Loan at the Malaysian Skills Advanced Diploma level.

As the MCO was being thoroughly implemented, many training institutions have been forced to shut down, considering this, the government has taken a step forward to provide a new learning hub called the ‘e-LATiH’ containing more than 300 training modules to help people develop their skills in their respective industry need which can be accessed for free.

Although the government is spearheading these efforts, there are still groups that are heavily affected by the pandemic and with this, Muhyiddin brought up that he is confident that despite the crisis, the people especially the workers are resilient enough to come together to revive the economy of the country.

“Your role as a strategic partner in developing the country’s economy all this while is very important and much appreciated by the government,” he said. He encouraged the public to continue to join efforts to ensure Malaysia remains peaceful, prosperous and progressive.