Johor's change in rest days "comes at a BAD TIME"

SINGAPORE - Malaysia's Johor state has announced that from January 1 next year, the state's rest days will be on Fridays and Saturdays instead of Saturdays and Sundays.

The Singapore Business Federation (SBF), whose members have business ventures and investments across the Causeway and in the Iskandar Malaysia region, said the decision by the Johor state comes at a bad time, when links are increasing between Malaysia and Singapore.

SBF feels the move could make Johor slightly less attractive as an investment destination.

Speaking to Channel NewsAsia, SBF's CEO Ho Meng Kit said the move will make business more inefficient.

He explained: "For example, if you have a Singapore company with a Johor subsidiary, there will now be only four working days which are aligned. So if you are going to transfer goods and services between the HQ and the subsidiary, you could only do it on four days (Mondays to Thursdays)."

It will not be the first time rest days in Johor are on Fridays and Saturdays. This was the case in the Malaysian state prior to 1994.

"Prior to 1994, that had been the arrangement. If you want to have your operations on Fridays, you may have to employ people and pay overtime for a workday there. But you may not be able to get your full load of staff...it certainly does make Johor slightly less attractive," said Mr Ho.

For the business federations in Singapore, one of their key concerns is linking the operations of some of their subsidiaries in Johor with those in other Malaysian states or cities like Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Currently in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, their working days off each week are similar to Singapore, on Saturdays and Sundays.

Mr Kurt Wee, vice-president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said: "The shortcoming is that even if the Johor workforce, economy, banks (are operational) on Sunday, the rest of the surrounding economic centres - Singapore, Kuala Lumpur - are not working that day. So...it's not going to be as effective a workday."

- CNA