Factory workers were forced to take annual, unpaid leave to be vaccinated

 

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Selangor and Federal Territories branch has received complaints that a factory in Shah Alam forced about 1,000 of its workers to take annual leave or unpaid leave to attend their vaccination under the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (Pikas).

“Today (July 22) the company declared a vaccination day and compulsory leave for their employees to attend their vaccination that has been set at Setia City Convention Centre in Shah Alam.

“However, this goes against conditions set by International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali that there would be no loss to employees during the Pikas Programme,” MTUC Selangor and Federal Territories said in a statement today.

This also violates Section 60E of the Employment Act 1955, where an employer commits an offence when deducting annual leave without an application from the employee, it said.

A screenshot sighted by Malaysiakini showed an automatically generated email by the employer stating that leave applications were submitted by the employees for the day of their vaccination.

“The employer was also found to be manipulative, by automatically deducting the leave in the system and informing the employees that the leave had been approved, as if the employees were the ones who had applied for it,” the MTUC statement said.

Malaysiakini has attempted to contact the factory for its response to this matter.

Meanwhile, MTUC Selangor and Federal Territories also said it had received complaints from employees about random inspections of their handphones and having their movement history investigated, allegedly for monitoring purposes due to Covid-19.

It said that merely scanning MySejahtera and showing their "status" (high risk or low risk) on the application before entering the premises would be sufficient.

“If their reason is to monitor (their employees), then their actions are highly inappropriate as it is done selectively, not comprehensively,” the union congress said.

MTUC Selangor and Federal Territories reminded employers that seeking data from employees’ MySejahtera applications is not within the jurisdiction of an employer.

It added that employers may “monitor” employees without violating their rights and privacy by ensuring they comply with the standard operating procedures during the Covid-19 pandemic, by scanning their temperatures, wearing masks and social distancing.

MTUC Selangor and Federal Territories went on to urge the Human Resource Ministry to investigate this matter and to stop employers from overstepping their boundaries, as well as to ensure that the workers’ leaves are granted fairly under the Pikas programme. - Mkini