MP questions low RM1,000 fine for factory breaching SOPs when ordinary people get high penalties

 

Maria Chin Abdullah says it is worrying that corporations are violating SOPs and having little regard for their workers’ well-being.

PETALING JAYA: Calling for more effective monitoring of glove makers’ adherence to Covid-19 SOPs, Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah expressed shock that one factory had only been fined RM1,000 when ordinary people had been fined up to RM8,000.

Noting that the authorities had penalised a Port Klang glove factory with a meagre RM1,000 for violating health SOPs after a raid on Thursday, she added: “Other ordinary citizens were known to have been fined up to RM8,000.

“It is also worrying to learn of corporations, regardless of their size, violating the SOPs and having little regard for their workers’ health and safety conditions.

“The fine for violators was meant to be a deterrent and it is important to have it tiered according to the seriousness of the violation, and as the law stands it could reach up to RM10,000.”

In a statement today, Maria said the recent cases of non-adherence to SOPs at various glove companies must be a stern lesson for businesses to improve the way they looked after their workers.

“We now have the opportunity to rebuild a more equitable, inclusive workplace and healthy workers who will strengthen corporate organisations far beyond Covid-19,” she said.

She noted that a glove manufacturer in Kajang was forced to close for seven days for failing to comply with Covid-19 preventive measures earlier this week when it was found that 781 workers were living behind the factory in two blocks of shipping containers stacked three storeys high.

Last month, the Labour Department found a glove manufacturing company in Chemor, Perak, to also have violated the Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act after it failed to apply for an accommodation acknowledgment letter from the authorities, with its workers’ living quarters described as overcrowded and in unsanitary condition.

Maria also noted that two other glove manufacturers – Kossan Rubber Industries and Top Glove – have recorded more than 7,000 Covid-19 cases between them.

Kossan this week said 990 Covid-19 cases were detected at one of its plants in Klang since intensive screening began on Dec 4.

The country’s largest cluster, the Teratai cluster, is linked to Top Glove’s workers in Meru, Klang – where 28 of its factories were forced to temporarily halt operations due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases. A total of 25 new cases were recorded in the cluster today. It has a total of 6,042 cases. - FMT