People's support network (Jerit) has an interesting proposition for Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn and his deputy Abdul Rahman Bakar.

It urged the pair to quit their posts and become labourers or work in a factory.

"Then they should decide if the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) should drop its demand for minimum wage of RM900 or not," said Jerit coordinator K Simon in a statement today.

He was responding to Fong's ( right ) call on MTCU to drop its demand as it would lead to the country losing its competitive edge.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rahman reportedly dismissed the pickets held on Monday by MTUC as not representing the voice of all union members as only 6,417 of the three million members had participated.

The deputy minister also said that enforcing a minimum wage and giving cost of living allowance was impossible and unfair in certain sectors such as the small and medium industries and domestic helpers as this was beyond the means of employers.

Why the fear?

However, Jerit felt that these statements were uncalled for.

"Why are the ministers so afraid of investors and employers? Demanding a minimum wage of RM900 is nothing compared to the millions reaped in profit by the private sector," said Simon.

Jerit argued that with the high productivity of workers in this country and with other Asian countries such as Vietnam, South Korea and China having a minimum wage policy, there was no excuse for Malaysia not to do so.

In May, the Productivity Report 2006 by the National Productivity Council revealed that Malaysia scored 3.7 percent in the productivity level which is much higher than more developed countries.

Malaysia's productivity level surpassed that of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) countries such as Sweden (2.8 percent), Japan (2.5 percent), Germany (2.0 percent), Denmark (1.8 percent), US (1.5 percent) and the UK (1.7 per cent).

On the same note, Jerit expressed that there is nothing wrong in providing a minimum wage for foreign domestic helpers.

"If you can't afford them, then don't hire them. Do the work on your own and tell us whether they deserve it or not," said Simon.