THE Malaysian Gig Community Secretariat chairman Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin welcomed Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement of the establishment of a Gig Workers Commission.Sharkar said that the move proved that the unity government paid serious attention to the plight of the group of gig workers.Recent reports say there are at least 1.2 million gig workers in Malaysia, and most of them are young people.“After several years of representation for gig economy workers, their plight was not taken seriously, especially because service provider companies did not consider gig workers as employees and themselves as employers.“We thank the PM for giving serious attention to the establishment of the commission involved and realising the expectations of gig workers,” he said in a statement.“We also thank the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is so committed to defending the p-call and e-call workers’ plight, including raising it in the previous UMNO General Assembly.”
Anwar announced the establishment of the commission in a speech at the closing ceremony of the Bumiputera Economic Congress 2024 in Putrajaya on Saturday (March 2).The commission’s focus is to meet social needs, resolve contract disputes and promote the career advancement of the people involved.Meanwhile, Keadilan Federal Territories vice chairman Andre Lai Chen Heng stated that the effort will further increase the presence of e-hailing and p-hailing industries in this country with a wider participation of the people in them.“In addition to empowering the gig economy sector, the Prime Minister also recognised the role of workers in contributing to the country’s economic growth with the establishment of the Gig Workers Commission.”He added that the introduction of special telecommunication package facilities as low as RM33 per month for a minimum of 40GB of data has helped the gig workers too.“I understand that about 150,000 to 200,000 gig economy workers have enjoyed the special package offered by the government at the beginning of this year.”Lai further added that with the introduction of the commission, gig workers will also receive the same minimum wage as workers in other sectors. – March 3, 2024
Main photo credit: Bernama
