THE national wage legislative technical committee is analysing and refining all the findings obtained on the minimum wage review, Deputy Human Resources Minister Awang Hashim said.

According to Awang, the report on the findings will be presented and debated by the national wage consultative council before being recommended and submitted for consideration and approval by the government.

He said the ministry had conducted six engagement sessions according to zones, attended by 209 employers’ associations, 93 trade unions and four civil society groups as of September 1.

“The ministry has also distributed survey forms to a sample of 1,996 employer respondents and 1,996 employee respondents as well as implemented a public perception survey on the minimum wage order 2020 through the ministry portal.

“There were 239 respondents comprising 177 employees (74.2%), 25 employers (10.5%) and 37 other respondents (job seekers and the public) equivalent to 15.7%,” he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today, following a question from Nurul Izzah Anwar (Permatang Pauh-PH) who asked for an explanation on the government’s commitment to reviewing the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, answering a question from Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman (Kuala Krai-PN) on measures to address unemployment among the people, Awang said the unemployment rate of Malaysians dropped 0.3% from 5.1% in the second quarter of 2020 to 4.8% in the second quarter of 2021.

He said the MyFutureJobs data obtained until September recorded a total of 1,574,327 job opportunities in various categories provided in the portal, while 636,613 job seekers were looking for jobs and 217,356 people managed to find job matches.

He said the government had also announced the implementation of various assistance programmes and stimulus packages since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, including the Malaysian economic and people protection assistance package, the people and economic strategic empowerment programme, and the people’s wellbeing and economic recovery package. – Bernama, September 22, 2021.