KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 — The Employees Insurance Scheme (EIS) that is slated to come into effect in January next year has collected RM455 million as of October, with 20,000 retrenched workers having benefited from the programme in the interim period.
The Star quoting Social Security chief executive Datuk Seri Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed as reporting that more are expected to benefit once the EIS officially takes effect.
“All companies in the private sector that employ at least one employee aged between 18 and 60 years are covered under EIS, except for those in the public sector, expatriates and domestic workers,” he said.
As of October, 21,445 workers had received the interim assistance out of 26,605 applicants who lost their jobs, the paper reported.
The EIS provides a safety net for some 430,000 companies in the private sector employing 6.6 million workers.
At the same time, both the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) and Malaysian Trade Unions Congress urged the government to improve scheme.
MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan told the paper that the scheme only benefited a small number of retrenched workers despite having a large pool of contributors, specifically employers.
“The intention behind EIS is a good one — it is intended to make the labour market more flexible so that employees are able to move on to their next job easily,” he said.
“However, the current structure of the scheme is adding more layers of burden on employers,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of workers’ rights, MTUC said the EIS needed more transparency.
Its secretary-general J. Solomon claimed there has been no proper information communicated by the Social Security Organisation to workers.
Solomon added there had been no assurance that employers would not abuse the fund and carry out retrenchment freely.
“We see a lack of effective enforcement by the labour inspectorate prior to retrenchment taking place,” he was quoted as saying.
