PUTRAJAYA should expand the coverage of the Wage Subsidy Programme (WSP) to include those earning above RM4,000 as 52% of the 90,000 who lost their jobs belong in the middle-income bracket, said the Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF).

Its executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said 52% of those retrenched came from the category of professionals, managers and technical people.

“Of course they are of the higher paid category, people who are paid above RM4,000 per month,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

He said employers are more willing to keep employees who are of the lower income category as those earning below RM4,000 are eligible for WSP.

Employers cannot retrench their employees while on WSP and for three months after.

“In that way, those who are within this category are less likely to be retrenched,” Shamsuddin said.

“More than 2.8 million people have benefitted from the WSP. It has also assisted employers in not carrying out retrenchments.”

He said MEF has proposed to the government to expand the coverage of the programme to the middle-income group and revise the limit of a maximum of 200 employees per company.

Malaysian Trade Unions Congress president Abdul Halim Mansor said the 90,000 job losses reported by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) only included contributors of the fund.

The actual figure, he said, could be to the tune of more than 800,000 as it includes workers in the informal sector and foreign workers, including undocumented migrants.

Halim said the number of unemployed people could soon be reaching one million.

“When employers file the claims to Socso and when the payment is received, the employee is no longer employed in that company,” he said, highlighting the shortcomings of the scheme.

He said there is a substantial number of workers who are still grappling with the situation of economic uncertainties as they do not know for how long they will have a job. This includes those who are forced to take unpaid leave.

Halim said, unlike those who were laid off, this group is also unable to get any assistance from the government as they are still employed despite being on unpaid leave.

“Workers who are above 40 years-old who are retrenched have difficulties in finding new employment because of the age factor,” he said, adding that those in that age group will also have higher expenses.

As such, MTUC has proposed to the government to reskill such workers and equip them with entrepreneurial skills.

Putrajaya announced the WSP in April as part of an economic stimulus package to protect job security and assist employers with headcount costs.

The government only subsidises the wages of up to 200 workers per company, earning RM4,000 and below. Both the employer and employee must be contributing to Socso to qualify for the subsidy.

As of October 16, 2020, a total of RM11.998 billion in wage subsidies were approved for the benefit of more than 322,150 employers, as well as more than 2.639 million employees.

Applications for the WSP, which started on October 1, will be open until December 31, 2020. – November 3, 2020.