THE verdict is out – only a miserable 2% (6,175 workers) contributed to the Gig Economy Platform Programme (PenjanaGig) as opposed to its target of 300,000 people.
This revelation has led to Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan assuring that his ministry would intensify efforts to ensure self-employed individuals start utilising this government initiative.
“Contributors, mostly from the B40 group, can enjoy the perks provided such as medical benefits as well as temporary and permanent disability allowances through this programme,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.
“The programme seeks to ensure the social security and welfare of the self-employed individuals involved in the gig economy.”
Saravanan pointed out that the fee was cheaper than the rate charged by conventional insurance providers in the market.
“Under the PenjanaGig, 70% of the annual contribution of RM232.80 or RM163 was paid out by the government and that the self-employed individuals would only have to pay the remaining 30% under the second plan contribution for service providers.
“The income insured under the second plan is RM1,550 where the self-employed contributors only have to pay RM69.80 a year,” he explained.
Unemployment rate dropping
On a related development, Saravanan revealed that cent data shows that the number of lay-offs reported by the Social Security Organisation’s Employment Insurance System until Nov 27 was 99,696 people.
At the same time, a total of 120,296 out of 372,934 job seekers managed to secure jobs.
The minister was replying to Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (BN-Machang) who wanted to know the number of jobs affected by the second conditional movement control order (CMCO) enforced on Oct 14 and the extent to which the enforcement has an impact on the labour industry and labour economy as a whole.
The unemployment rate in December is expected to decline to 4.5% and that the trend would continue into 2021.
Based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, employees in the aviation, hospitality and tourism sectors are deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. – Dec 9, 2020
