Workers picketing about Minimum Wage

Saw this report on Malaysiakini.
the link is here.

Here is the MTUC memorandum as given to PM.
Congratulation to Syed Shahir and G. Rajasekaran on your leadership!

10 days ago, while attending a makan hosted by Tan Sri Muhammad, in his speech, he said that 'Govt servant are happy getting salary rise, and soon private sector would also get wage rise'.

I got the gist that on the Govt side, they support MTUC asking for wage rise, and setting minimum wage of RM900. Well , maybe the quantum is subject to argument and debate, but wage rise is inevitable and just.
MTUC just have to make a case for it. Picket, memo, gathering and demo. Then Govt will 'reluctantly' yeild to MTUC's demand.
Thats politics. Govt dont want to be seen as a walkover.
Fine.
Fong is also reported as 'willing to review'.

My view is;
MTUC will get what they want, Minimum Wage set at a rate a bit below what they asked. maybe RM800 a month. Maybe less, RM750. They just have to make a case, hold gatherings and show Govt that in this PRU year, Govt cannot afford to alienate the workers.
With the Opposition especially PKR is in such a mess (I mean what a mess!) and cannot seize this issue for whatever reason, PM Abdullah and BN team would be silly to let this fall out of their grasp!

my write up in Malaysiakini.

Pay rise: What about the rest of us?
Noor Yahaya Hamzah
May 24, 07 2:05pm

I refer to the malaysiakini report Up to 35% pay hike for civil servants.

I am happy for government servants, the police and the army personnel. When did they last have general salary increase? Well, I don’t remember, that’s how long ago it was since the last salary increase. If they count on their annual performance salary increase, that hardly covers inflation.

I have relations, ie, a brother, a sister, in-laws and uncles and aunties in government service. Quite a few of my old friends are in the teaching profession. Their monthly salary is just enough or less. I remember a friend who had to supplement his income by selling Amway products, and another friend who worked part-time every night for RM3 per hour at Makro Shah Alam.

Another man sold ‘nasi lemak’ every night at Puduraya. Yet they continue on working as government servants during the day, because their salaries make up the bulk of their income, and they want to keep their pension from the government in later years. I admire them for their tenacity.

Some people say that the cost of this increase in salary is RM8 billion per year. I haven’t done the calculations, too much hassle. In Keynesian terms, this increase in government purchase of RM8 billions will push the economic equilibrium upward. If, currently, the GDP is sitting at RM100 billion, the economic equilibrium after this would be more than RM108 billion.

The final figure will depend on marginal propensity of consumption (MPC). So assuming that all government servants’ purchases are done locally (no imported stuff) with a MPC of 0.8 (savings rate of 20%), then we can expect the new economic equilibrium to be at around RM130 billion.

Who cares about such details anyway? The important thing is that there will be economic growth for a few years to come. With this new impetus for economic growth, there will be hundreds of thousands of new jobs created by the expanding economy. You see this as the government servants spend a little bit extra on goods and services.

More jobs would be created, and this will have a flow on effect. If unemployment is high, this will lower the unemployment rate, but if unemployment is low, say below 2 percent like today, this would create upward pressure of wages.

I am okay with increasing wages for the low-income workers. I am also happy with highly productive workers getting their due rewards. But I am concerned with low-income workers who don’t have proper representation and are denied wage increase that are due to them. For this, I blame the government for not allowing them to join national unions who can fight for their cause.

Also, the fruits our nation’s prosperity should be shared among us all. Very soon, in about a year’s time, we would start to have a shortage of workers. I suggest that the government start formulating and push for a Minimum Wage Law through Parliament.

With minimum wage in place, our economic planners could reallocate our labour resources from not profitable sectors to more profitable ones. For this I support MTUC in calling for pay review for the private sector. Let’s call for RM5 per hour minimum wage rate.

Pay Rise for Govt Servants, what about the rest of us?

I am happy for Govt servants, the police and the army personnel. When did they have general salary increase? Well I dont remember, thats how long ago since the last salary increase. If they count on annual performance salary increase, that is hardly make up for inflation.
I have relations, ie brother, sister, inlaws and uncles/auntie in the Govt service. Quite a few of my old friends are in the teaching profession.
Their monthly salary are just enough or less. I remember a friend who had to supplement his income by selling Amway, and another friend who work part time every night for RM3 per hour at Makro Shah Alam. Another man sold nasi lemak every night at Puduraya.
Yet they continue on working as Govt servant during the day, because their salary make the bulk of their income, and they want to keep their pension from the Govt in later years. I admire them for their tenacity.

Some people say that the cost of this increase in salary is RM8billions per year. I dont make calculation, too much hassle.
In Keynesian terms, this increase in Govt purchase of RM8billions will push the economic equilibrium upward. If curently the GDP is sitting at RM100billions, the economic equilibrium after this would be more than RM108billions, the final figure will depend on marginal propensity of consumption (MPC). So assuming that all Govt servants purchases is done locally, no imported stuff, and MPC of 0.8 (savings rate 20%) then we can expect the new economic equilibrium at around RM130billions.
Who cares about such detail anyway, the important thing is that there will be economic growth for a few years to come.
With this new impetus for economic growth, there will be hundreds of thousands of new jobs created by the expanding economy. You see as the Govt servants spends of a little bit extras on goods and services, more jobs would be created, and this will have a flow on effect. If the unemployment is high, this will lower the unemployment rate, but if the unemployment is low, say below 2% like today, this would create upward pressure of wages.
I am okay with increasing wages for the low income workers. I am also happy with highly productive workers getting their due rewards.
But I am concerned with low income workers who dont have proper representation and denied wage increase that is due to them. For this I blame the Govt for NOT allowing them to join national unions who can fight for their cases.
Also the benefit of our nation prosperity should be shared among us all. Very soon, in about a years' time, if all going well, we would start to have a shortage of workers.
I suggest that the Govt start formulating and push Minimum Wage Law through Parliament. With Minimum Wage in place, our economic planner could reallocate our labour resources from not profitable sector to a more profitable one. For this I support MTUC in calling for pay review for the private sector.
Lets call for RM5 per hour wage rate.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/67564
22/05: Where the money will go
Category: General Posted by: Raja Petra
CAROLYN HONG
The Straits Times

Breakdown of the pay rises for Malaysia's one million or so civil servants from July 1:

35 per cent pay hike for the lowest-paid staff in the civil service's support sector, including cooks, gardeners, clerical staff and drivers. These number 319,336.

Police and military personnel in the same tier will get a 42 per cent pay hike overall because their duties are more critical and challenging.

25 per cent pay rise for all other staff in the support sector, or 434,899 civil servants. (30 per cent for police and military personnel in this tier.)

15 per cent pay rise for those in the management and professional group, or 246,202 civil servants. (17 per cent for police and military personnel in this tier.)

7.5 per cent pay rise for the highest-ranking civil servants, including secretaries-general of ministries, their deputies, university professors and heads of government agencies. These number 1,603 civil servants. (9 per cent for top-ranking police and military personnel in this tier.)

100 per cent increase in the civil service's Cost of Living Allowance (known as Cola) across the board.