FORMER Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak urged the Government to address the plight of about 50,000 school cleaners, who apparently had their salaries slashed by 40%.

“The Government made it compulsory for employers to pay their staffers’ salaries despite not being operational during the movement control order (MCO).

“But now, the Education Ministry now announced that it would only pay 60% of the contract value to its contractors. Hence, the latter slashed the cleaners’ pay by 40% to avoid retrenchment.

“Mind you, they only get paid between RM1,000 and RM1,200 monthly,” he said in a Facebook post.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) central committee member M Sivaranjini told Malaysiakini that the pay cuts has been happening since month, alleging it was in violation of Human Resources Ministry’s guidelines during MCO.

On that note, Najib queried the Government on why it was forcing employers to disregard the minimum wage legislation by allowing them to pay only 60% of the school cleaners’ monthly salary.

“We impose RM1,200 minimum wage for those living in urban areas while those in smaller towns get RM1,100.

“Mind you, they only get between RM500 and RM700 after deductions from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Socso). What are their families to eat after that?” he asked. – July 3, 2021.