Pejuang Youth, Muda urge govt to address labour-related issues

 

Pejuang Youth and Muda have urged the government to address various labour issues in conjunction with today’s International Workers’ Day or Labour Day.

Among the issues raised by them – in separate statements – are the minimum wage, more skilled job opportunities, job security, social protection of women employees and, health and safety at the workplace.

While the new RM1,500 monthly minimum wage is highly welcomed, Pejuang said the minimum wage for professionals such as engineers, lawyers and accountants should also be reviewed.

“The issue of ‘poor engineers’ can still become headlines in newspapers even after our country has become developed in many industries,” lamented Pejuang Youth employment and human capital exco Mohd Akmal M Yusoff in a statement today.

There is also a need to create more highly-skilled jobs to address the issue of job mismatch, with the increasing number of fresh graduates in various industries, he said.

He also urged the government to be more friendly to multi-national companies to help alleviate this issue.

Pejuang Youth’s Mohd Akmal M Yusoff

As the country is shifting towards the endemic phase of Covid-19, Akmal said job security has become a serious issue as employees are expected to perform more than what they are being paid.

This will put pressure on the employees and it will, in turn, affect worker productivity in general, he added.

The government should also enforce labour laws more seriously, specifically over issues such as getting fired for no reason, not receiving salaries on time and so on.

Extra attention should also be given to cases where the workers are unable to defend their rights due to a lack of funds to hire legal counsel to fight for them, he said.

“The existence of laws that protect workers’ rights has no meaning unless there is effective enforcement,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Muda labour bureau said while the government should be enhancing “archaic” labour laws, new laws must also be passed to protect workers’ livelihood.

“As governments play a pivotal role in ensuring labour laws in the country are improved, the rights of workers must always be protected and given priority attention.

“We have seen how many times issues of workers’ safety and health are being neglected by these leaders,” they said.

As such, they urge the government to ensure social protection policies are respected and enforced properly, including unemployment insurance and universal pensions.

This is to ensure that individuals without jobs can also live a dignified life, they said.

Besides the government, they said unions and companies must also continue to work together.

“(They must) help deliberate employment and workers’ issues and even hold open discussions which can help bring a better understanding of the workers’ rights at large in their workplace,” they said. - Mkini