JOHOR BARU, June 17 — The Johor government hoped the benefit coverage for the Employment Injury Scheme (EIS) under the Self-Employment Social Security Act 2017 (Act 789) can be extended to more employment sectors in the future, to benefit the people.
In making the call, the state Education, Human Resource, Science and Technology chairman Aminolhuda Hassan said among the sectors that can be considered are agriculture, fisheries, and stall employees.
“We are aware that accidents happen all the time, and sometimes unexpectedly, as we observed during Ops Selamat Hari Raya where more than 200 deaths were recorded, and maybe some suffered injuries.
“So, all these will give an impact to the lives of a family, assuming they are involved in the accidents and did not make contributions to any party,” he told the media after attending the Social Security Organisation (Socso) programme with the community leaders 2019 state level here today.
Currently, self-employed bus drivers, Grab and taxi drivers are covered under the EIS, he added.
Meanwhile, state Socso deputy director Abd Razak Omar said it was planned to extend the scheme to various self-employed sectors in the future, however, final decision on the matter would only be decided by the Human Resource Minister, M.Kulasegaran.
“If compared with other states, Alhamdullilah (Praise be to God), we are considered the state with the highest contributors under Act 789 (self-employed contributors) of 1,500 people.
“This figure is just at Johor Bahru, and it was contributed due to high awareness among taxi, Grab and bus drivers. But, we still hope that those who are self-employed can be covered by the scheme.
“This is because they have four choices of contribution, among others only RM13.10 a month or RM157 a year for those who earn RM1,050 a month,” he said. — Bernama
