By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — Putrajaya must not implement its minimum wage and minimum retirement age laws concurrently as it will affect business operations, manufacturers say.
“Employers are severely pressured on wage costs with the concurrent implementation of the minimum wage and minimum retirement age.
“While the former increases wage costs and triggers knock on effects, the latter increases wage costs by delaying retirement,” the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) said in a statement today.
The FMM said yesterday it wants the government to delay implementing minimum wage until the nuts and bolts of the new legislation are ironed out, and that the industry had been kept in the dark about details of the new law.
The FMM also said it wants the compulsory retirement age for the private sector to be kept at 55, but has proposed mandatory re-employment to raise the working age.
“In aggravation, the employers are not able to initiate the necessary adjustments since details of the composition of minimum wage have yet to be made known,” FMM said today.
It suggested a 24-month transition period to implement the minimum retirement age from the date of its gazette, as well as a holistic review of employment laws to allow greater flexibility in hiring and firing workers.
The FMM also said minimum wage should be implemented by “zones”, starting with the Klang Valley before it is eventually implemented in other areas across the country.
