HUMAN Resources Minister Richard Riot almost lost his temper after being accused of giving “a textbook answer” during the tabling of the Employment Insurance System Bill last night.

The soft-spoken minister stood up and ticked off Charles Santiago (Klang-DAP).

“I know my job. Do not tell me that I do not know my job,” said Riot.

Santiago said Putrajaya has to rethink its approach to help those in their 40s and 50s acquire skills to meet the ever-changing job landscape.

“It is hard to learn a skill. The answers were merely textbook and not representative of reality,” said Santiago.

The lawmaker then went on attack mode and insisted that because of Putrajaya’s failure to address the problem is why the unemployment rate is high in Malaysia.

“You keep on using the old method. (Now tell me) why is the unemployment still high?”

Riot said if the rate is below 4%, a country is still considered as having full employment and Malaysia’s unemployment rate is 3.4%.

He also apologised to Deputy Speaker Dr Ronald Kiandee for being emotional.

Earlier, Riot told Parliament that Malaysia could not extend the insurance scheme from six months to one year as the contribution rate was low (0.4%) compared with Vietnam (3%).

Vietnam is one of the few countries with an employment insurance scheme. Others were China (3%), Bahrain (3%), Japan (1.6%) and South Korea (2.2%).

Vietnam extended its scheme for a year.

“If you ask me, I want the contribution to be increased, too, but even now at 0.4% (0.2% from employers and 0.2% from employees), there were still voices against it. So, we start small. We still have to start somewhere,” said Riot.

The bill was finally passed just after midnight after almost six hours of debate.

The employment insurance system will kick off in January 2018.

The EIS, to be administered by the Social Security Organisation (Socso), will benefit some 6.5 million workers should they lose their job.

Both employers and their workers will share the monthly contributions to the scheme equally.

Depending on a worker’s salary, monthly contributions start from as little as 10 sen for those earning RM30 a month and capped at a maximum of RM59.30 for those earning RM4,000 and above.

Under the revised EIS, employees who are laid off will receive a portion of the insured salary.

The amount will be paid on a progressively lower scale over three to six months.

Retrenched workers will also be entitled to allowances for re-employment, reduced income and job training.

The EIS was first tabled in August but was withdrawn after a week after lawmakers objected to several provisions in the bill. – October 26, 2017.