Oil palm company Sime Darby Plantation Bhd has been told to acknowledge its corporate responsibility to uplift the socio-economic status of its employees, instead of voicing out against an increase in its workers’ minimum wage.

This is in the wake of a remark yesterday by Bakke Salleh, Sime Darby Plantation Bhd executive chairperson and managing director, that an implementation of a minimum wage of RM1,500 would increase the company’s production cost by nine percent.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Penang branch secretary K Veeriah said the world's largest plantation enterprise cannot distance itself from the economic transformation of the working population, based on a consideration of its decline of profit margins...