Refer dispute to wage council, Proton staff told

Employers or private sector workers having disputes on the implementation of the minimum wage are advised to refer them to the National Wages Consultative Council.

Human Resource Minister S Subramaniam (right) said the council would try to arrive at win-win solutions to the disputes.

"The policy is for every worker, it started for local workers but we also have foreign workers in this country and they are also getting the same benefit.

"But it was started with the aim of increasing the income of workers, particularly Malaysians who are getting very low salaries.

"Whatever small issues, I would like to ask those affected to discuss with the wages council and try to resolve it," he told reporters after opening a new building of SJKT Ladang Labu near Seremban today.

He said this in commenting on the protests carried out by workers of national car maker Proton in Tanjung Malim and Shah Alam over marginal increases in their salaries because of the minimum wage policy.

The demonstrations were reported in Malaysiakini yesterday.

Subramaniam said as the policy only came into effect on Jan 1, there were bound to be some problems initially but these could be ironed out.

"This policy will benefit our country in the long term, and in short term there will be some issues but we all must find ways so we can overcome this issues so that eventually the people of Malaysia will benefit from it," he said.

He also said some employers were given permission to delay implementing the policy but this was for a specific period only.

They had to implement the policy after the said period, he added.

- Bernama