KUALA LUMPUR: Less than one per cent of the gig economy workers have registered with the Social Security Organisation (Socso).
Finance Minister Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz revealed this today in the 22nd Laksana Report, saying that based on information from Socso, awareness among gig workers was still low.
"As at Sept 11, only 0.95 per cent or 2,847 gig economy workers had registered with Socso, out of the target of 300,000 workers (under the Penjana Gig initiative)," he said.
Under Penjana Gig, he said the government would cover 70 per cent (RM163) of the contribution to Socso, while the remaining 30 per cent (RM69.80) would be covered by gig workers or platform providers, making up a total payment of RM232.80 per year.
"This will provide coverage of up to RM6,000 to gig economic workers in the event of an accident during working hours," said the finance minister.
Aside from eligibility for the Self-Employed Social Security Scheme covering medical, educational and physical or vocational rehabilitation facilities, he said, those registered would get other benefits including benefits of dependents in the event of death worth RM1,395 per month for life and corpse management benefits worth RM2,000.
As of Sept 11, he said a total of RM10.44 billion wage subsidies under Penjana had been approved, benefitting more than 2.6 million workers.
For the Hiring Incentive Programme and Training Assistance, he said, a total of RM1.5 billion had been allocated for this programme to encourage hiring by employers.
A total of 33,688 employees (an increase from 28,577 last week) have managed to get jobs. This number includes 25,752 people under the age of 40; 4,324 people for the age group 40-60 years old, 256 OKU and 3,356 apprentices.
On ePENJANA, Zafrul said as of Sept 11, 10.98 million people had successfully received RM50 in their e-Wallets with a total value of RM548.8 million.
"(All) ePENJANA recipients are reminded that the credit in this e-wallet must be used before Sept 30. After that date the credit value will expire from the e-wallet user's account," he said.
He also said 11,067 nurseries and kindergarten operators registered under the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and the Education Ministry had been reviewed and approved as of Sept 11 with a total allocation of RM16.42 million to encourage childcare centres to adopt new norm Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and premises certification.