[August 09, 2006] Minimum wage for three categories of workers (New Straits Times Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) KUALA LUMPUR: Minimum wages are on the horizon for three categories of workers, a little over 25 years after the initial attempt failed largely due to flaws in the system. A total of 250,000 private security guards, private clinic assistants and casual farm workers will soon be the first people in the country to enjoy a minimum wage. If all goes well, they are expected to take home guaranteed monthly wages by the end of the year. This will be a great improvement over the current situation, where some security guards take home as little as RM500 a month after overtime. Most clinic assistants and casual farm workers earn between RM200 and RM500 a month. Currently, workers in these sectors are supposed to be paid according to the trend in the respective industries, but employers generally use their own scales. Government efforts in 1981 to introduce a minimum wage of RM700 for stevedores succeeded, but the rate is no longer used by the industry as market forces have led to higher salaries. The next year, it tried to introduce minimum wages for shop assistants, cinema theatre workers, and bar and pub employees. This failed as the amount proposed was much lower than the industry rate. Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn said the three categories of workers were in vulnerable sectors and were grossly underpaid. "The Government felt that they needed help in terms of a minimum wage as they earned very low salaries," he told a Press conference yesterday. Asked if other sectors could expect to see minimum wages in future, he said the ministry would initiate moves if there were complaints from workers. Fong said seven minimum wage councils would be set up to study the matter and submit their proposals to the ministry by October. Fong said the councils would also look at workers' rest days including the wage to be paid if they worked on rest days, besides workers' terms and conditions. They will also look at retirement schemes for the workers. Each council will comprise three independent members, two employers and two union representatives. All three affected groups, which do not have unions, will be represented by the Malaysian Trades Union Congress. Fong said the Cabinet approved the setting up of the councils in September last year. The ministry had set up a commission of inquiry in 2002 to study wages earned by the three groups after the issue was raised in Parliament. Asked if low salaries for security guards were responsible for some of them resorting to robberies at banks, Fong said it could be a factor. WAGE WATCH Minimum wages of the following groups being studied * Private security guards in Peninsular Malaysia (chaired by Subang Jaya State Assemblyman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng), * Private security guards in Sarawak (chaired by retired Sarawak State Financial Officer Datu Chin Jew Bui), * Private security guards in Sabah (chaired by Institute of Development Studies (Sabah) executive director Datuk Dr Mohd Yaakub Johari), * Private clinic assistants in Peninsular Malaysia (chaired by Dr Mah Hang Soon of Ipoh Specialist Hospital), * Private clinic assistants in Sabah (chaired by former Sabah Health Services director Datuk Dr Mechiel K.C. Chan), * Casual farm workers in Sabah (chaired by Datuk Stephen Foo Kiat), and, * Casual farm workers in Sarawak (chaired by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak's politics and government studies programme head in the faculty of social sciences, Neilson Ilan Mersat.)