KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 ― A former deputy minister said the high number of Covid-19 cases in workplace clusters showed the need for companies to provide better staff quarters.
Senator Liew Chin Tong said there is an urgent need to look after migrant workers at factories as their dormitories have been identified as one of the sources of outbreak and infection.
“We must do more to protect the most vulnerable in our society, which includes migrant workers.
“We need to seriously relook at how we are treating them and rethink their current working and living arrangements,” he said in a statement.
The Health Ministry yesterday identified five workplace clusters behind the country’s sharp rise in new cases.
These clusters are the Damanlela construction site cluster in Kuala Lumpur, the Cergas cluster in Negri Sembilan, the Hentian cluster in Selangor, and the Kaya cluster with cases detected in Negri Sembilan and Putrajaya.
The Teratai cluster was responsible for 1,511 new Covid-19 cases, which originated from Top Glove Corp Bhd’s worker dormitories in Klang. To date, some 5,777 individuals in the cluster have been screened, and 4,036 positive cases have been detected so far.
The Damanlela construction site cluster has 1,539 cases, Cergas (1,337), Hentian (1,101) cases and Kaya (900) cases.
Liew suggested that in the short term, organisations employing migrant workers must be required to ensure that the housing provided for their employees meets set health standards and specifications.
“Rooms and lodgings provided must factor in the space, design, facilities, and disease response considerations, moving away from the cramped dismal living areas that are mostly associated with the current conditions of foreign workers’ living quarters,” he said.
For the longer term, Liew said companies like Top Glove, which many have been asking to pay a “windfall tax” due to the large profits they have made during the pandemic, should stop relying on foreign labour and hire locals.
He said they can afford to pay a salary ranging from RM2,500 to RM4,000 which in the end will benefit the economy with locals in the workforce.
“I would recommend to use all existing and, if needed, new policy tools to guide the glove industry to automate and to hire Malaysians, at a wage of at least RM2,500 per month.
“It is preferable for them to create jobs for Malaysians as this will lead to healthier economic growth in the long run, and also helps the nation now.
“With a carrot to incentivise the glove sector to automate, and with a stick to make the hiring of cheap foreign labour more expensive, the government can guide the glove industry to create tens of thousands of jobs for Malaysians at RM2500-RM4000 over the next few years through an “automation+Malaysianisation” programme.
“Ultimately, this will lead to a virtuous cycle for all sides,” he added.
