Latest National Recovery Plan SOPs ‘perplexing and contradictory’: MEF

[superadmin]

KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has criticised the latest standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the National Security Council (NSC) for regions in Phases 1, 2 and 3 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).

Its president Datuk Syed Hussain Syed Husman said that employers are perplexed as the new SOPs for all three phases do not make sense as they contradict the government’s policy on easing movement for fully vaccinated individuals and addressing the priorities between saving lives and livelihoods.

“During the movement control order (MCO) 1.0 when vaccines were not fully rolled out, the quarantine period for staff to work off-site was only three days.

“However, based on the latest SOPs, the quarantine period is now extended to 14 days and this applies to fully vaccinated employees.

“Employers in the manufacturing, construction, mining and quarrying sectors in the concerned regions are now required to test all employees once every fortnight including the fully vaccinated, and this is at the cost of the employers,” Syed Hussain said in a statement today.

He said a manufacturer with 1,000 employees will have to pay RM80,000 to test all employees every two weeks, given the cost of RTK-Antigen test kits are at RM40 each.

“In a month, the cost would amount to RM160,000, just for test kits.



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