KUCHING: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak and the Sarawak Bank Employees Union have called for a total lockdown and an expedited vaccination programme for employees in essential services.
Chief executive director of Sarawak Bank Employees, Andrew Lo pointed out that since the Covid-19 instances had risen to over 9000, with record highs in Sarawak, the only logical course of action was to declare a complete lockdown and provide salary subsidies to all private sector workers.
“It is shocking that Sarawak’s updated MCO 3.0 will allow firms, particularly large companies, with favourable cases to continue functioning as usual.
“All our illnesses, deaths, and economic hardships have been in vain and complaints have legitimate basis which shows that this is the cost of our leaders’ failures.
“We must take the initiative; they cannot be relied on,” he said.
The secretary of MTUC also urged all Malaysians to take all necessary precautions to combat this pandemic.
“If that means giving up many of our privileges and luxuries, then so be it. We hope it won’t take longer than a month or else we shall die slowly and painfully.
“Even the Health Ministry’s Director General, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham, had resorted to pleading with the populace to impose a “self-lockdown”.
“A self-lockdown without economic stability, on the other hand, is difficult for workers striving to put food on the table. Businesses and employers want aid as well.”
Lo also advocated that the burden be shared equally by the government, employers and workers.
“The government should contribute a third of the subsidy, employers should pay a third, and workers should sacrifice a third of their salaries, subject to a minimum wage of RM1200.” he said.
“Because workplace clusters account for 60% of total new clusters, the government must prioritise vaccination for workers in essential services as well as labour-intensive industries such as manufacturing and construction,” he added.
“In addition, the government must assure food security for all citizens, especially unemployed and migrant labour.”
