KUCHING: Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak has hit out at the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) over their stance on employees’ salaries during the movement control order (MCO).
“MEF has a long history of consistently prioritising profit over anything else. Their concern about cost and profit at a time when the nation is facing its most serious crisis is very sad,” said MTUC Sarawak secretary Andrew Lo.
He was commenting on MEF’s claim that the statement by Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri that all private sector employers have to pay their employees’ salaries during the two weeks of MCO had no force of law.
It was reported that MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said that this is a situation of force majeure, a frustration of contract, an event that was beyond the reasonable control of employer and employee. He said that in such a scenario, either party had the right to nullify the contract.
However, Lo countered that force majeure only applied if there was such a clause in the contract, adding that most employment contracts did not have such a clause.
“It cannot be implied. Any nullification of the contract must be in strict compliance with such clause, if any,” he said.
He stressed that employers could not rely on frustration of contract ― the period of two weeks, even four weeks now with the MCO extension, was not long enough and one has to show that the job was impossible to be carried out.
He said that in the current situation, employers and employees are making alternative arrangements such as working from home, or on shift or rotation.
He said Shamsuddin claimed that under the Employment Act, wages are to be paid for work done.
“However, he conveniently did not mention that it is the employer’s legal obligation to ensure that employers are given the job they are employed for. Is he challenging workers to file claims for constructive dismissal?” questioned Lo.
He said Shamsuddin also claimed that the directive to pay the two weeks’ worth of salaries could cause companies to go bust.
“Is he saying that MEF can guarantee there will be no retrenchment if workers take two weeks of unpaid leave? Are Malaysian companies so incompetent that paying two weeks of wages will make them bankrupt?” he further questioned.
He appealed to the leadership of MEF and its member companies to look beyond self-interest and to follow the example of other responsible companies working well with their employees to do what is morally right.
“To force a worker earning RM2,000 to forgo his salary and only get RM600 under the Employment Retention Programme (ERP), which is funded by the Employment Insurance System (EIS), would starve his family,” he said.
He said in this regard, it is hypocritical of MEF to resort to EIS when it is at the forefront in opposition to the scheme.
“The opposition is indeed unfortunate otherwise EIS could have been implemented as early as 2010 at contribution rates of one percent instead of 0.2 percent. It would have sufficient funds to provide sustainable relief now,”
Lo said, adding that measures such as withdrawing from Employees Provident Fund (EPF) would not have to be resorted to.
According to him, Sarawak MTUC had already suggested for employers to discuss practical arrangements with their employees in facing these challenging times.
He believed that most employees whose employers had been good to them would volunteer to take annual leave or unpaid leave if they were assured of their jobs. “Good employers will also most willingly reimburse employees once things take a turn for the better.”
“The fact that MEF has to resort to threats would indicate that they are not confident that their member companies are good employers,” he said.
