[ad_1]
CITY OF GEORGE: The Finance Ministry needs to extend coverage of its Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) stimulus package to those employed in the concert economy, says Klang deputy Charles Santiago (pix).
He said the initial scope of the stimulus and pay only focuses on formal employment of which some segments of workers may only be inclined to save rather than spend, and was based on a limited period of blocking.
The informal jobs sector, which includes daily wage earners, those who earn in the digitized economy, outsourced professions and shared services, is non-union and has little influence on the negotiations.
“There is no Employee Provident Fund (EPF) or Sosco protection for them.”
Without protection, workers have to set their wages and services at higher disapproval levels, which means that low incomes cannot pay for their services, Santiago said.
“What the country needs is to boost spending so that the real economy can be reactivated and jobs saved or generated,” he added.
Santiago estimated that 5.6 million informal sector workers or 39% of the workforce have not yet received help from the BPN.
Although billed as one of the highest private sector bailouts in Malaysia, the RM250 billion economic packages are below expectations, Santiago said in an interview.
To complicate efforts to stimulate the economy, there are wandering employers who have decided to abandon their interests during the current times because everyone is concerned about the virus, he added.
Employers laden with failed companies in the service and manufacturing sectors have cited the Covid-19 pandemic as a primary reason for closing or downsizing, which takes the blame elsewhere,
“But in reality, their businesses were already failing before,” he said, adding that this is an area where legal protection must apply.
These include attempts to take advantage during disruptions in the global supply chain where food and other services end up markedly more expensive, he said.
BPN primarily covers M40 and B40 workers – low to middle-income families and students affected by the economy crash, where they are paid from RM200 to RM1,600 in one-time payments.
Despite gradually reopening, the private sector continues to cut jobs and take other cost-cutting measures to stay afloat.
According to the World Bank, around 26% of the Malaysian workforce in 2017 are self-employed and that number is growing.
There are an estimated 160,000 electronic call drivers in Malaysia, but the concert economy is broader as freelance work has existed.
Kebun Bunga Assemblyman Jason Ong Khan Lee said the country may have impressed by keeping the number of infections at a manageable level, but his biggest challenge now is reviving an economy that was already showing signs of faltering.
[ad_2]
