More than 100 workers marched to Parliament today to voice their unhappiness with the government’s meagre hike that raised the minimum wage to just RM1,050 monthly.
The workers who called themselves Bantah 1050 were led by Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general Sivarajan Arumugam,
The group started out from Padang Merbok early this morning but encountered a wall of policemen just before the bridge to Parliament.
A minor scuffle broke out when police prevented several protesters, including PSM member S Arutchelvan, from continuing their march.
The protesters pushed through and came within 50 metres of Parliament’s gates where Arutchelvan sought to negotiate with police to be allowed entry so the workers could hand their memorandum of protest to Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran.
But then the demonstrators came up against a police unit from the Light Strike Force officers.
Tempers cooled when Kulasegaran emerged at about 10.50am and invited 20 leaders of the protest into Parliament.
“We welcome them…we welcome them for a discussion. Last time I was the one who was on the other side, on their side trying to make my way in,” the minister joked.
MTUC secretary-general J Solomon praised Kulasegaran as being the first minister to personally meet workers at the gates of Parliament and welcome them in for a discussion.
The protest, which was organised by the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), was meant to urge the government to review the standardised minimum wage of RM1,050 a month, which will be effective nationwide from January 2019.
MTUC had previously said RM1,050 is unrealistic due to the high cost of living.
The protesters held up banners and chanted various pro-worker mantras, including “Long live workers” and “Raise the minimum wage”.