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Jerit submits 55 complaints on minimum wage

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Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas (Jerit) today submitted a total of 55 complaints regarding the abuse of minimum wage policy by employers to the Ministry of Human Resource.

These alleged abuses which happened nationwide revolved around revocation of benefits such as transport, additional working hours, inclusion of allowance to reach the required minimum wage, non-payment of Employer's Providence Fund (EPF), among others. The minimum wage policy came into effect Jan 1 this year.

These complaints were lodged at a special minimum-wage complaints hotline initiated early last month by Jerit, together with Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and other NGOs.

PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan today met with the ministry's director of the policy secretariat, Kua Abun for about an hour and half, to relay this message and also seek further clarification on the minimum wage policy.

"We were given the assurance that companies cannot retract existing benefits," he said, adding that these benefits must be paid above the minimum wage. He also said that the ministry conveyed their intentions that the policy was here to stay and there will be no flip-flopping on the matter.

Also present was PSM deputy president M Saraswathy, who added that the minimum wage is payment only for eight hours of work a day and a total of 26 days a month. "Anymore should be counted as overtime," she said.

Arutchelvan added that these 55 complaints were only the tip of the iceberg as tomorrow will be the final payday for the month of January and more complaints will likely follow.

The ministry, he said had given a guarantee that these complaints will be investigated and will follow up on any further complaints from other cases as they come.

Arutchelvan also said that the information over the policy was not disseminated well and that may have led to the abuse.

"We hope the media will help us in spreading the news. We spoke to the ministry who said that they had conducted a roadshow. There are also hotline numbers which people can also contact to lodge a report of any abuse," he said, adding that more needed to be done to spread the word regarding the specifics of the policies.

The ministry hotline numbers where reports can be lodged are 03-8886 5156 or 03- 8890 5015/6/7