CABINET MINISTERS URGED TO TAKE SALARY CUT

PENANG (Malaysia), Feb 13 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Trade Union Congress
(MTUC) has urged Cabinet ministers and top executives to take a salary cut to
offset the impact of the economic slowdown.

Its president, Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud said it would be unfair to ask
workers to go on unpaid leave to save faltering companies while top executives
did not make any sacrifices.

The austerity drive should start at the top and not the other way round, he
told reporters after calling on northern state of Penang Deputy Chief Minister
P.Ramasamy here Friday.

"We should emulate Singapore president and prime minister, who would be
taking a salary cut next year, leading a civil-service-wide downward salary
adjustment," he said.

Syed Shahir said the MTUC deplored a statement from a former deputy minister
who asked workers to take unpaid leave to save their companies from collapsing.

"Why only the workers who have to make the sacrifices? Cabinet ministers and
employers should also do likewise.

"With their meagre income, the workers would be in dire straits if they were
to take unpaid leave, especially those with large families," he said.

Syed Shahir also called on the federal government to implement the
retrenchment fund, which was mooted by MTUC 10 years ago, to help 13,000 workers
who were already jobless since October last year.

Commenting on Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's remarks that only 1,313 workers
from 31 companies in Penang were retrenched in January, he said the MTUC took a
serious view on the matter.

The MTUC and the state government has agreed to work out a mechanism in
dealing with workers retrenchment, he said, adding that the meeting also touched
on the proposed MTUC workers complex in Penang.

Meanwhile, Ramasamy said Penang was prepared to consider a salary cut for
state executive councillors should the economic situation worsened.
-- BERNAMA