KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 — The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has invited Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as well as Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman to discuss its proposal to raise the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65.
“MTUC is ready anytime to meet them so that we could present to them the real situation with facts and figures,” said MTUC secretary-general J. Solomon in a press statement today.
At the same time, the group also voiced its disappointment over the outright rejection of their proposal by the prime minister.
Solomon said that Dr Mahathir should have come up with alternative plans to address the lack of retirement savings among the country’s M40 and B40 groups due to the rising cost of living.
“We regret Dr Mahathir chose to reject it outright without offering any counter suggestions to tackle the related problems like low and insufficient minimum age, rising cost of living and low EPF savings," said Solomon.
He added that the reason of creating "deadwood" in the workforce is illogical, claiming that many older workers are highly experienced and hardworking while laziness transcends age barriers.
The unionist also dismissed Syed Saddiq’s argument that raising the mandatory retirement age would affect job opportunities and career prospects for younger workers.
Solomon said the statement by Syed Saddiq in particular did not make sense because a huge number of Malaysians were unemployed as the wages offered by the private sector are very low, and not because of a lack of jobs in Malaysia.
“This has resulted in many youths grabbing job opportunities abroad because of better wages which are commensurate with their qualifications,” he said adding that there was no conclusive evidence of youths being denied jobs due to MTUC's proposal.
“Syed Saddiq should be sensitive to the real problems faced by the young generation in not getting jobs, and not reject our proposal without any study or listening to us.
“He wants to be seen as the champion of the youths. But do not do it at the expense of the workers in the B40 and M40 groups who are grappling daily with problems of low wages, high cost of living and insufficient savings in EPF,” Solomon said.
He also criticised the minister for remaining silent when the union umbrella group had pushed for Putrajaya to raise the minimum wage to RM1,800 a month, a move which would have provided direct benefits for the youths.
