THE Employment Insurance System (EIS) Bill in its current form will oppress the people, PKR’s Kuala Langat MP Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid said today.

He said the bill is seen as a new tax to be paid by workers.

“For example, if we take RM2,000 as the average salary of employees, based on the data by Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) there are 6.8 million employees who will be affected by this bill.

“And if we take the total contribution of RM24.60 monthly from each employee, the total amount that the federal government will receive in a year is around RM2 billion.

“However, we estimate that the government only needs RM300 million a year to bear the 50,000 employees who might lose their jobs, which means the government will obtain almost seven times more than the needed amount,” he said at a press conference in Dewan Rakyat today.

The bill was tabled for its first reading on August 1 by Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Jaem.

However, the second reading of the bill is postponed to the next parliamentary sitting in October due to criticisms that the system will collect a large amount of funds but would only benefit very few people.

“Why should the second reading be postponed? We urgently need this bill and if they want to impose improvements, it should be discussed now.

“Before the bill is discussed again in Dewan Rakyat, PKR urges Parliament to form a special committee to gather feedbacks and suggestions from significant parties including Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and economists to improve the bill.

“We also urge the government to adopt the suggestion by MTUC which asked for the contribution to be reduced by 50%,” he added.

The scheme, mooted by Prime Minister Najib Razak, requires both employers and employees to contribute to the system on a monthly basis, based on a contribution scale outlined in the bill.

One of its provisions seeks to prohibit employers from reducing the wages of employees, or discontinuing or reducing benefits payable to employees under the conditions of service solely by reason of their liability for any contributions payable under the proposed act. – August 7, 2017.