Members of the Government Contract Workers’ Network (JPKK), who gathered outside the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) here, said they were representing cleaners and security guards at public schools and hospitals in various states.
Negeri Sembilan JPKK coordinator S Tinagaran said the contract workers’ employers claimed that district education and health offices had yet to give them the funds to pay the workers according to the new minimum wage.
“But is that our problem? These workers have been paid only RM1,200 for nearly a year,” he said, pointing out that the new minimum wage of RM1,500 had been in effect since May 1, 2022.
Tinagaran urged the government to expedite the payments to vendors so they could start paying the RM1,500 minimum wage to contract workers.
He also said Putrajaya should check if vendors had the financial capacity to pay workers their full salaries.
“When they lack funds, they can’t afford to advance their money to pay the salaries and are unable to pay the minimum wage of RM1,500.”
Representatives from the Negeri Sembilan JPKK and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) handed over a memorandum on the matter to a PMO representative. They also sought an official meeting with the PMO to resolve the issue.
For the long-term, Tinagaran said, the government should get rid of third-party vendors and allow government agencies to directly hire these contract workers.
“When the workers are placed directly under the government, they don’t have to rely on the vendors to pay their salaries. It will come directly from the government,” he said.
A cleaner known only as Dewi said the wage she earned was too small to cover the needs of her family and lamented that her complaints went unheeded.
“When we complain to the head of cleaners, we are told the contract amount is too small for the minimum wage to be paid. When we make a report, no action is taken,” she claimed.
Following the implementation of the new minimum wage in May 2022, then human resources minister M Saravanan had said cleaners and security guards at government facilities would not be paid the new minimum wage as their contracts had yet to be renewed.
Saravanan said the workers were bound by the terms in their existing contracts, which were based on the previous minimum wage of RM1,200.