PAS, PKR support Minimum Wage picket on Aug 8

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) have separately
endorsed the longstanding call by Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) for
the past decade for such a law to be enacted.
<p>In a weekly press conference held at the party headquarters in Brickfields,
PKR secretary general Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said the introduction of
a minimum wage act was &quot;the easiest way out&quot; to solve the problem
of poverty in the country.</p>
<p>He also expressed disappointment that the government under leadership of Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi had rejected a memorandum sent by MTUC without
&quot;implementing any study or organizing any dialogue sessions&quot;.</p>
<p>&quot;PKR was also disappointed that the Prime Minister has chosen to ignore
calls by MTUC leaderships to meet and discuss on (this) issue of worker’s rights,&quot;
he said.</p>
<p>&quot;We therefore urge all party members to take part in a picket on Aug 8
that will be held nationwide to demand for a minimum wage (act),&quot; he said.</p>
<p>Also present at the press conference were PKR vice president Sivarasa Rasiah
and MTUC financial secretary A. Sivananthan.</p>
<p>PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had earlier expressed support for
the picket and urged party members to lend their support.</p>
<p>A wage of RM140 per month</p>
<p>Sivananthan said there are workers in &quot;the northern states&quot; of the
country who are being paid a basic salary of RM140 and expressed concern that
there might be many others in the same predicament.</p>
<p>He said of the nine million workers in the country, only some ten percent were
in some form of unionized organization.</p>
<p>&quot;The other 90 percent is at the whim and fancy of the employer,&quot;
he said adding that the contracts of employment that any workers entered to
were often at the discretion of their employers.</p>
<p>He also reiterated the MTUC’s rejection of government proposals to form an
inquiry body as well as a wage council to monitor workers wages in specific
industries.</p>
<p>He said regardless of the amount of a minimum wages the government &quot;must
accept the concept of introducing minimum wage (act)&quot;.</p>
<p>Sivananthan said the picket which would start at 5.30pm in various sites nationwide
was also held to get the government to re-negotiate amendment to Industrial
Relation Act and Workers Union Act to be tabled in Parliament for second reading
this month.-Saadon Aksah/ES</p>
<p><i>Source: http://englishsection.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=132&amp;Itemid=2</i>