MALAYSIA’S minimum wage does not apply to food delivery workers, e-hailing drivers and other gig economy workers as they are not permanent employees, said Deputy Human Resources Minister Awang Hashim.

“The minimum wage applies to all private sector employees defined under the Employment Act 1965, and the Sabah Labour Ordinance and Sarawak Labour Ordinance.

“According to these laws, an employee is defined as someone with a contract of service with the employer. As such, the minimum wage will apply to them,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.

“Gig workers, however, are self-employed and work on a freelance basis and, as such, are not defined as employees for the purposes of minimum wage,” said the Pendang MP.

Gig workers have freedom and flexibility without being tied down as permanent employees, he added.

Although there is no minimum wage for gig workers, Awang, a PAS lawmaker, said that they can be covered under the Social Security Organisation (Socso) if they are contributors.

Awang was responding to Dzulkefly Ahmad (Kuala Selangor-PH) who asked whether the government planned to extend the minimum wage to gig workers.

The deputy minister said that the government was aware of a recent court decision in the United Kingdom to define e-hailing drivers as permanent workers on the issue of minimum wage in the Uber vs Aslam case.

But he noted that Malaysia has not done so yet.

When asked whether the government planned to mandate Employees Provident Fund contributions for gig workers, Awang said: “EPF does not come under the Human Resource Ministry.”

“The government, however, contributes Socso payments for gig workers who choose to contribute as well.”

On this, Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman (Muar-Ind) asked why the government was subsidising gig economy employers.

“Why don’t we ask the employers to pay instead of subsidising?”

Awang replied that the Covid-19 epidemic had affected many businesses and the government wanted to ensure that fewer workers are retrenched.

“Higher revenue for them also means higher taxes for the government,” he said. – November 8, 2021.