Are employee holiday bonuses unachievable? The non-profit Social Protection Contributors Advisory Association Malaysia (SPCAAM), whose job it is to protect workers’ rights to social protection, doesn’t agree with this.
In public, the group has denied what William Ng, President of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (Samenta), and Syed Hussain Syed Husman, President of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), said about not wanting to give holiday bonuses to employees.
According to J. Solomon, President of SPCAAM, record tax receipts reported yearly by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) since 2021 demonstrate that local businesses have been recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“How is it possible for IRB to make such a record haul if business owners and corporations are still recuperating from the Covid-19 pandemic, as Syed Hussain and William Ng claim?” Solomon enquired.
Corporate tax alone contributed RM97.94 billion (US$20.5 billion) to the IRB’s record haul of RM175.4 billion (US$36.72 billion) in 2022, Solomon added, indicating significant fiscal contributions from corporations. This is a 21.75% increase over the previous year. He continued by saying that the Ministry of International Trade and Investment reports that exports increased by more than 8.7% to RM122.43 (US$25.63) billion in January 2024 from the previous year, while the Malaysian economy grew by 8.7% in 2022 compared to 3.1% in 2021.
Solomon cast doubt on the assertions made by both individuals that it is impractical to provide financial assistance to staff members in light of their statements, as the Malay Mail stated.
In response, Syed Hussain said that the idea of providing workers with a month of holiday help would put a heavy financial strain on employers at a time when the majority of companies were “merely surviving.”
He stated that organizations like SPCAAM “must understand that businesses are not banks.”
Solomon, however, disproved those claims, pointing to global examples—such as Indonesia’s approach to employee welfare—that demonstrated how feasible it is to promote a culture of justice and proportionality in determining an employee’s worth.
Solomon said, “The Malaysian employer must be mindful that the government has made Festive Aid mandatory and that all employees in Indonesia, including the general manager, receive a one-month salary.”
