KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — About 98 per cent of employers in the country were found to have implemented the minimum salary scheme, said Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem.

He said this was based on 986 statutory inspections by his ministry.

“As human resources minister, I am happy because the implementation of the minimum salary scheme is on the right track.

 “Of the 986 inspections, 98 per cent have implemented the scheme while two per cent have yet to do so,” he noted.

He was speaking to reporters after opening the 2014 Social Security Organisation (Socso) regional conference, 'Return to Work' (RTW) at the Putra World Trade Centre here today.

Riot said the two per cent of employers were given three months until September to implement the scheme, failing which they could be given a show-cause letter and fined RM10,000 if they still failed to adopt the scheme.

The implementation of the minimum salary scheme which benefitted 1.4 million private sector workers nationwide should have taken off in January last year.

However, due to the unpreparedness of employers, the government postponed it to January this year.

The minimum pay rate fixed was RM900 a month in the peninsula and RM800 in Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan.

Meanwhile, Riot said 8,615 of the more than 12,000 handicapped workers with health problems were re-employed via the RTW programme introduced by Socso since 2007.

The programmes helped workers who had physical disabilities and non-chronic health problems to work again through processes of physical rehabilitation and vocational training.

According to Riot, the programme had been entered as one of the ministry's Key Performance Index to overcome poverty among the disabled under the National Key Result Area, namely to tackle the issue of inflation and daily cost of living. — Bernama