Sentosa State Assemblyman, Wilfred Yap urged that labour law powers be devolved to Sarawak, stressing that decisions affecting the state\u2019s workforce should be made locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said recent debates on equal minimum wage and mandatory 2% EPF contributions for all migrant workers highlighted the flaws of centralised, one-size-fits-all policies formulated in Putrajaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLabour matters are currently under the Federal List of the Constitution, which may promote uniformity but fails to reflect Sarawak\u2019s unique economic structure, cost of living, and rural realities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yap stressed that sudden wage or EPF policy changes, made without Sarawak\u2019s input, could burden local SMEs and industries such as plantations, timber, and oil and gas, potentially harming both employers and employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He called for the Sarawak Labour Ordinance to be defederalised under Article 76A of the Federal Constitution, enabling Sarawak to set wage structures, working hours, and sector-specific protections suited to its circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is tailoring national standards to fit Sarawak\u2019s realities, in line with the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yap believed that labour policies should be shaped by Sarawakians, for Sarawakians, to ensure they genuinely protect workers while supporting economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sentosa State Assemblyman, Wilfred Yap urged that labour law powers be devolved to Sarawak, stressing that decisions affecting the state\u2019s workforce should be made locally. He said recent debates on equal minimum wage and mandatory 2% EPF contributions for all migrant workers highlighted the flaws of centralised, one-size-fits-all policies formulated in Putrajaya. \u201cLabour matters are currently under the Federal List of the Constitution, which may promote uniformity but fails to reflect Sarawak\u2019s unique economic structure, cost of living, and rural realities,\u201d he said. Yap stressed that sudden wage or EPFRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33509,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33508\/revisions\/33509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}