BN tries to knock down Pakatan's historic RM1,500 minimum wage

SHAH ALAM - The Selangor government was slammed Monday for setting the RM1,500 minimum wage floor to employees of the state government-linked companies(GLC) and not for its own staff.

Calling the move unfair to some 19,000 state government workers, Mohd Isa Abu Kasim (BN-Batang Kali) said the move showed that the Pakatan Rakyat-led government did not care about the welfare of its own employees.

“I do not see why the RM1,500 minimum wage should be set for GLCs and not for state government staff.

“The Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS) general manager earned millions over a two year period and I was told that the staff enjoyed more than 10 months bonus,” he said when met at the lobby of the state assembly meeting here on Monday.

Mohd Isa said the state government should first look into its own workers' welfare before announcing such benefits for GLC staff.

“If the state government says it had an increase of revenue, why did it not apply a minimum salary floor for its own staff? I think they should not discriminate against its own civil servants,” he said.

He also said Speaker Datuk Teng Chang Kim had stopped him from posing a supplementary question on the matter when Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was debating on the issue.

Earlier, at the House, when responding to Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim (PR-Kota Damansara) about the policies used to execute the minimum wage floor, Khalid said the state government would allocate a grant worth between RM100,000 and RM150,000 to the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) to examine ways of implementing the move.

Last week, when tabling the state Budget 2012, Khalid had announced that all GLCs would be paid a minimum wage of RM1,500 from next year.

However, he said the amount was not a giveaway, adding that they would need to improve themselves and acquire more skills to justify the pay increase.

Given this, RM10mil would be allocated for this initiative to help smaller subsidiary companies to pay the minimum wage and for training programmes to help employees acquire more skills.