The Malaysian Insight

EMPLOYERS need to carefully manage the Covid-19 quarantine rule for their workers so that they can continue to operate fully and reduce possible downtime, stakeholders said.

They told The Malaysian Insight that a longer isolation period for workers would result in companies losing manpower.

“During this period of quarantine, employers struggle to get manpower replacement in order to maintain operations,” Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said.

“This problem will also be compounded when another positive case is identified within the same workplace,” he added.

“MEF believes that the new protocol of no quarantine must be handled with care. 

“Close contacts who have completed their vaccination or have taken the booster shot, and do not have any symptoms, should be allowed to work with strict standard operating procedure (SOP),” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The Health Ministry had announced that from March 1, close contacts who are asymptomatic and have received their booster dose are no longer required to undergo home quarantine. 

However, they must self-test on the first and third days, while close contacts who have received their booster but display symptoms would have to be quarantined for a period of five days. 

Syed Hussain said that workers should also undergo regular self-tests such as weekly testing. 

“As for symptomatic close contacts who have completed the vaccination dose or have taken the booster shot, they should conduct a test before being allowed to work. 

“If the test indicates negative, then there should not be any restriction for them to go to work.  

“As for individuals who are not yet fully vaccinated or not vaccinated, the requirement for quarantine should be maintained.” 

Syed Hussain said that the transition to the endemic phase should make it more flexible for businesses to operate fully and reduce possible downtimes. 

“The number of close contacts can grow to the extent that the operation of the company is paralysed due to majority of workers required to undergo quarantine,” he said 

He added that MEF has received many complaints of such nature and this scenario has really upset business operations. 

Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers president Soh Thian Lai meanwhile said that with the country transitioning to the endemic phase, a majority of employees are back in the office based on their respective risk assessments. 

“With a higher percentage of employees at work and in the current situation where we are experiencing a surge in cases due to the Omicron wave, industries would naturally heighten their own SOP.

“This is to detect and manage cases so that the workplace remains safe and for operations to continue with minimal disruptions and overall productivity maintained.” 

He said that industries were also bound by the SOP issued by the Health Ministry.

“Without a doubt, due to the Omicron wave and increase in cases, employers would experience a spike in positive cases among their employees despite all the SOP in place and this would put pressure on factory operations.

“However, with changes in the SOP related to close contacts introduced from March 1, this has eased the pressure on factory operations. 

“This move is very much welcomed by the industry. In any case, to ensure that operations continue with minimal disruptions, employers rely on getting in contract workers and reshuffling shifts among the existing workers to fill in the gaps.

“This is when there are positive cases among their employees so that the timeline of orders is not impacted and deliveries are not delayed.” 

Soh said that despite the changes in SOP, both employers and employees must continue to play their roles to ensure that the workplace remains safe. 

“Employers must continue to implement the TRISS (Test, Report, Isolate, Inform dan Seek), National Testing Strategy, which is based on risk assessment by individual employers, and the general SOP to reduce the risk of infections at the workplace and keep all employees safe. 

“Employees must also be responsible and honest when reporting themselves as a positive case as there are concerns lately over possible abuse by employees with fake Covid-19 test results.”

He added that employers would have to deal with delinquent employees according to the company’s own disciplinary process.

“If they suspect their employees are employing such tactics, they should investigate and take the necessary disciplinary action.” 

Small and Medium Enterprises Malaysia president Ding Hong Sing said employers find it difficult to have their staff work from home because of low productivity. 

He said this was due to the recent increase in the number of infected employees that has made operations inefficient and had put pressure on them.

“For example, if there are 50 employees in a department and one person is diagnosed positive, all of them then have to be isolated. 

“This really slows down production and efficiency, so many operators have started to implement shift work or have their staff work on different floors.” 

He said that the staff had to be separated to avoid having to quarantine all their workers because one employee was confirmed positive. 

“The cost of testing has become a bane to employers. Those who have completed their seven-day quarantine, we will have them tested once. As for close contacts, we will test them at an interval of once in three days.” – April 1, 2022.