Iconic Mydin grilled for ‘hesitation’ to honour RM2.5K min wages for grads, undermining workers’ welfare

 

COMPARED to neighbourhood convenience chain Speedmart 99, it’s a rarity to hear MYDIN – the epitome of Malaysian Muslim consumerism – gettibg ridiculed on cyberspace on matters related to ‘employers’ thriftiness’ so to speak.

But the lukewarm reaction by managing director Datuk Wira Ameer Ali Mydin towards Budget 2027’s proposal to fix the minimum wage for graduates at RM2,500 seems to have opened the proverbial floodgate to perhaps a wider issue of working conditions and staff welfare.

For starters, his justification that setting salaries based solely on academic qualifications risks causing problems when new graduates receive salaries equal to or higher than existing employees with experience in certain positions does look sensible.

“If employees who’re receiving a RM2,300 salary already feel comfortable, then existing employees could raise questions if fresh graduates come in and receive the same salary,” he said in a special interview on the Fokus Minggu Depan programme with Astro AWANI.

“Employers ultimately need to consider salary adjustments across the board, not just for employees involved with the minimum wage rate.”

The Malaysian halal hypermarket and retail chain head honcho also pointed to skill mismatch by stressing that he believes that the difficulty graduates face in finding jobs despite having academic qualifications shows the need to align workforce skills with market demand.

This statement somehow led Threader @ kiwiflavouredcat to take a swipe at Mydin in that “only those who have worked for 15 years are eligible for the RM2,500 salary” with little hope of even getting annual bonuses.

“Actually, I’ve no intention to bring down MYDIN. But please treat your staff with dignity. Not just based on salary (since some say that higher salary equals a spike in living cost),” justified the cat lover in a seeming constrictive criticism which elicited 14.6K likes, 1.2K comments, 2.4K re-posts and 1K shares at the time of writing.

“But please look into the areas of staff welfare, benefit and company’s work culture & environment. Read the reviews from your former staff, then reflect.”

Employer’s thrift

This is when ex-staff came to the fore to share their working experience at MYDIN with one groused that employees during his time were made to “wear watch, belt etc sold at MYDIN (or bearing its brand)” with the poster jibing if “the boss himself, too, wears a MYDIN belt”.”

“Is it true that people say even the T-shirt uniform will be deducted from staff’s salary?” wondered one commenter with the ex-staff explaining that employees “have to place a deposit which will be refunded upon resignation”.

Seconding the poster’s statement, another ex-staff at MYDIN’s headquarters recounted “new employees coming in and out just to gain experience”.

“They’re unable to stay for long given there’s no bonus, no increment or whatever fringe benefit. They cut [Sic] as much as they can,” she claimed while rating MYDN’s marketing as “indeed A++”.

Others who are presumably regular shoppers took a pot shot at the retail chain for “banging on foreign workforce who won’t argue on salary matters” as a means to reduce operational cost.

“Most MYDIN employees are indeed foreigners compared to Lotus’s many of whom are local workers,” observed one commenter with another remarking that “even a Thai-owned establishment still prioritises local workers over their Malaysian counterpart”.

In fact, what can be deemed as unfair human resources practices were also brought up by some ex-staff who claimed “allowance will be deducted if one takes MC ” on top of no salary increments and annual bonus.

Likewise, the tendency of assigning staff to do last minute chores so close to their clock out but reluctant to pay overtime wages.

Even poor facilities such as no refurbishment to “surau with mold” and dilapidated toilets were also exposed by ex-staff.

At the end of the day, whether it is MYDIN or Speedmart 99, both retail chains have their own set of challenges to manage their workforce without over-compromising on their welfare and well-being in their quest to mitigate escalating operational cost. 

 - Focus Malaysia