KUCHING: A local non-governmental organisation (NGO) has expressed concern over difficulties faced by employers in paying their workers’ salaries during the movement control order (MCO) period.
Sarawak Community Policing Association (SCPA) chairman Datuk Dr John Lau Pang Heng said in the industrial sector, the most significant overhead was employee’s wages — which companies were not allowed to deduct, based on the government’s instructions.
“It burdens the medium and small companies heavily as their cashflow will be affected due to there being no revenue during the MCO period,” he said.
Lau added that the decision by the federal government to provide assistance to employees earning less than RM4,000 may be flawed.
“Some workers would prefer to stay at home during the MCO and receive their monthly salary from their company and also extra financial assistance from the government,” he explained.
He said this group may hope for the MCO to be extended as their take-home pay would be higher than when the MCO was not implemented.
“This will increase their expenditure and when this becomes a habit, when the MCO is over, they will realise that their salary is less than during the MCO,” he said.
For industries set to resume work during the MCO, he said some employers would find difficulty in convincing their workers to return to work as most of them had asked for extra pay, preferring to stay at home.
As for the industrial sector, he said the raw materials were still incoming, especially those from overseas, though industries were unable to start production.
“This means there is no delivery, and with no delivery there is no production and ultimately no revenue,” said Lau.
He noted that banks were only instructed to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) but not larger companies.
“All payment needs to be made on time when imported raw materials arrive at the local port. This is a huge burden to the companies and many big industries,” he said.
