Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

INTEL, the giant computer chip maker said it will close two assembly test facilities in Penang between now and the end of 2009. It was also learned that their other facilities in the Philippines and the United States will also be shut down due to the current economic uncertainties and the continuous loss in net profit which Intel is unable to coop with. With the closure of the Penang, the Philippines and the United States facilities, it is expected to lay off about 5000 over employees.

THE Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) said about 200,000 factory workers are expected to be retrenched following the global economic slowdown. The high number – compared with 85,000 who were retrenched during the Asian economic crisis in 1998 – was because the latest crisis was global, MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said recently. He said the worst affected sector was the electrical and electronic component industry, which he said had not received commercial orders since the beginning of the year. “Cost-cutting measures are being carried out through cancellation of overtime or retrenchment. Later, operations will shut down or branches closed. “The situation may extend into next year and the earliest that the market can stabilise is within 18 months,” he added - Agencies .

The Penang state government will hold its Chinese New Year celebrations at Campbell Street from 6.30pm to 10.30pm on Jan 29.The Chinese New Year cultural and heritage celebrations will be held in the George Town heritage area on Feb 1, from 12.00pm to midnight, and will feature cultural performances. All are welcome to witness the fantastic events and celebrations in conjunction of our lunar new year. Thank you.

About 60 Malaysian workers of the Poly Glass Fibre Manufacturing Sdn Bhd factory in Perai near here staged a peaceful picket today against the alleged decision of the management asking them to take 18 days of unpaid leave from Jan 23 in view of the Chinese New Year to cut the cost of operation. The workers staged the picket four times between 8am and 7pm so as to enable those on shift duty to join the picket after work. The executive secretary of the Non-metallic Mineral Products Manufacturing Employees Union, Abdullah Abu Bakar, told reporters the company's action would place a financial burden on the workers who generally earned between RM1,000 and RM1,500 a month. He claimed that foreign workers of the company were to be allowed to work during that period and that this was unfair as some of the local workers had served for more than 15 years. He said the company's action went contrary to the provisions of the collective agreement between the employer and workers which requir...

The proposal to convert the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scheme to a monthly pension scheme for private sector employees is not viable as individual savings are too small. Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general G. Rajasegaran said that the majority of the seven million private sector employees had saved less than RM50,000 each in the EPF upon retirement. “Assuming the retiree lives for the next 20 years and if his savings are given to him in monthly instalments, he would receive about RM214 a month as pension,” he told Bernama yesterday. He added that this amount was definitely not enough for the retiree to live on. Rajasegaran was commenting on a statement by Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam that the Cabinet had given the green light to study the possibility of converting the EPF scheme to a pension scheme for private sector employees. Public sector employees are already enjoying a pension scheme, including free medical treatment at government hospi...

Malaysian companies look set to put around 45,000 workers on a temporary layoff or short time work over a two- to three-week period around the Chinese New Year so as to cut output, a local newspaper quoted a government minister as saying. "During the period, the factories will be on holiday for two to three weeks and workers have been asked to take leave. Some are on paid leave, and some are on no-pay leave," Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam was quoted as saying in the Sun newspaper. According to the latest official data, Malaysia's unemployment rate stands at 3.3 percent. Malaysia is exposed to the global slowdown as it exports the equivalent of 100 percent of gross domestic product and many private sector economists now say that the country will fall into its first recession in eight years in 2009. The government remains optimistic that the economy will grow 3.5 percent this year however. The government has already launched a $2 billion stimulus package and leadin...

Wishing all readers and supporters a very Happy New Year to you and Gong Xi Fai Cai. Thank you for your continuous support.

You open the newspapers and an advertisement featuring the logo of a prominent public university jumps out at you. The ad offers an executive diploma programme at affordable rates and, to sweeten the deal, it can be done part-time. But these qualifications may not be recognised by the Public Service Department or the Malaysian Qualifications Agency. SONIA RAMACHANDRAN finds out what such qualifications mean. MAY (not her real name) wanted to know more about human resources. An advertisement in the newspaper with a Universiti Malaya (UM) logo caught her eye. It was offering an executive diploma in human resource management."I thought 'Wow! It's UM and it is not easy to get in there' so I joined and paid the deposit," she said."I thought it was an accredited and recognised degree as it was from UM. Classes were also held in the UM campus and that added to the impression the qualifications were UM qualifications." Only after paying more than RM7,000 and joi...

SUNGAI PETANI: The Labour office here will soon take legal action against a factory for retrenching 99 workers on too short a notice. The office’s senior assistant director Mohd Jarjis Abdullah said the electronic components factory had notified his office on Dec 30 that it would retrench the local workers on Feb 9, but instead retrenched them on Jan 9. He said this was against the requirement under Section 63 (1) of the Employment Act 1955, which required an employer to inform his office 30 days before any retrenchment or temporary lay-off exercise. The company is liable for a fine of up to RM10,000 if convicted, he said. Although the company had settled retrenchment benefits totalling RM533,102 to the affected engineers, clerks, technicians and supervisors, it had not abided by Labour regulations to inform his office 30 days before taking the action. It has left the affected workers in a dilemma as they had too short a time to look for alternative jobs, he told a press conference her...

Western Digital, the world's second largest hard disk drive manufacturer, is keen to sell its Sarawak plant in the Samajaya Jaya Free Industrial Zone (SJFIZ) to recover its losses due to the global economic meltdown, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said today. Dr Chan, who met with senior officials from Western Digital here yesterday to discuss the company's future, said the company had already invested US$160 million (RM560 million) since they started 13 years ago. "They (Western Digital) are already seeing a buyer, who is coming here, and will make a decision by the end of this month. Otherwise, they will lose a lot of money if they close down and do nothing about it," he told reporters after presenting fertilisers for hill padi cultivation to 2,017 farmers in Siburan, about 38km from here. Asked if the prospective buyer was Hitachi, a Japanese multinational corporation which specialises in high technology and services, including hard disk drives, Chan ...

The Juche idea is a new philosophical thought which centres on man. As the leader said, the Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. The Juche idea raised the fundamental question of philosophy by regarding man as the main factor, and elucidated the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. That man is the master of everything means that he is the master of the world and of his own destiny; that man decides everything means that he plays the decisive role in transforming the world and in shaping his destiny. The philosophical principle of the Juche idea is the principle of man-centred philosophy which explains man's position and role in the world. The leader made it clear that man is a social being with Chajusong, creativity and consciousness. Man, though material existence, is not a simple material being. He is the most developed material being, a special product of th...

Manufacturing activity around the world fell sharply in December, suggesting that the recession hitting the US and many other countries will extend well into 2009, if not longer, and that unemployment will rise globally. Data and surveys published at the start of the new year – including from China – add to the gloom about the world economic outlook. A broad index of change in US manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level since June 1980, when the American economy was on the verge of a severe double-dip recession, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Not one of the 18 industries surveyed reported growth, and some, such as wood products, have been in decline for more than two years. New orders, a gauge of future activity, sank to the lowest index level since US records began 60 years ago. Exports and production also sank, and employment levels declined. The downturn in demand for manufactured goods is prompting US companies of all sizes to lay off workers, shut down pl...