Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Firstly, the imposition of a minimum wage for all persons disregards the
intricacies of each industry.
Damned by tough competition with established local companies and
MNCs to recruit and retain talents, SMEs faced greater obstacles last year
when the government implemented tough foreign labour curbs.
SMEs would struggle to survive with the new minimum wage, owing to
the surge in labour costs.
Understandably, the rhetoric that sunset industries that cant even afford
to pay their workers reasonable wages should leave the market is
permissible. Nonetheless, with the emergence of Iskandar Malaysia, SMEs
may choose to outsource their production/services to that region,
ultimately causing retrenchment of currently employed individuals.
Why are we punishing local businessmen, who provide jobs for our
people? If we really want to help them, we should push for a reduction of
rents from government landlords, or reduce the taxes on commercial
vehicles, instead of raising labour costs.
This lowers the cost of production for SMEs, thus allowing them to
reward their employees with higher wages.
Instead, we are giving the SMEs a double whammy, where we punch their
already bruised cheeks with a demand for higher wages. The injured
fighter would definitely leave the ring for shelter, and ultimately leave his
gloves (employees) behind.
Is it not better to implement the minimum wage for MNCs/large local
companies who can afford this wage increment?
I look forward to responses from the opposing bench about the points raised,
and I hope they consider amending the bill to exclude all persons.