
Image credit: Business Today
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Samenta) has called for the formation of a cabinet-level Future of Work Task Force as part of the plan to respond to the changed talent markets.
In a statement on Tuesday, the association urged the government to do the necessary labour law reforms to better reflect the current gig economy and ensure stronger share of labour income, among others.
“We will continue supporting the government’s efforts in transforming Malaysia’s economy, and in raising the productivity and capability of our SMEs.
“This includes addressing the underlying structural issues that are inhibiting the growth of our SMEs, instead of stop-gap measures in the form of grants and handouts,” it said.
Meanwhile, the association also expressed its hope on the revamped cabinet line-up.
Labour and wage reforms “are among the most important issues in the transition to Ekonomi Madani”, it said, in describing the challenging task ahead for Steven Sim who was promoted as the human resource minister in the Cabinet reshuffling announced earlier on Tuesday.
“Given the strong mandate of the unity government, this is a rare window of opportunity for the government to make the difficult but necessary labour laws reform, to update our colonial era labour laws to better reflect the current gig economy, ensure stronger share of labour income, allow wages to be tied to productivity instead of time-worked, better protect guest workers and the formation of a redundancy fund,” it said.
Samenta added that it will work closely with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship Development and Cooperatives under the leadership of minister Datuk Ewon Benedick and new deputy minister Datuk R Ramanan to support the development of our SMEs.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim unveiled 12 Cabinet line-up changes and split up two ministries as part of the Cabinet reshuffling he revealed on Tuesday.
The most notable was the appointment of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) chief executive officer Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan as Finance Minister II. Amir, 56, was sworn in as senator in Dewan Negara earlier in the day.
Also noteworthy were the return of three individuals to the Cabinet, namely Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad as the health minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani as the plantation and commodities minister, and Gobind Singh Deo as the digital minister.
Source: https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/693671