The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) Malaysia feels it is unfair, while the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) welcomes the recommendation.
On Thursday, Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said foreign workers who did not contribute to Socso could make an arrangement with their employers to have their salaries deducted to compensate for the cost.
“For example, the employer can deduct RM50 monthly from the workers’ salary,” Ismail was reported as saying.
But Rehda president Soam Heng Choon said it was not fair for the workers to bear the cost of testing, noting that these foreign labourers had had no income for the last two months after the movement control order came into effect.
The MCO was enforced to curb the spread of Covid-19 on March 18, but was relaxed on May 4.
“To impose this cost on them is unreasonable,” Soam said.
He reiterated his call for Putrajaya to quickly relook at alternatives such as the rapid test kit which was faster, cheaper and readily available to accommodate the large volume of workers.
“The government should quickly devise a testing protocol that is effective. Knowing the constraints of our testing infrastructure, it should make clear guidelines for systematic and quick testing procedures,” he said.
Any confusion, coupled with the slow testing process, would hinder the revival of businesses, especially the construction and property industry.
MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan, however, welcomed the proposal, but said the policy decision needed to be finetuned by the Labour Department under the human resources ministry.
“This way any employer implementing the policy as mentioned by the senior minister will not run foul of the labour laws for illegally deducting wages of the employee,” he said.
Putrajaya recently made Covid-19 tests for foreign workers compulsory following the spike in cases among the group at a construction site in Ampang.
The initiative would begin in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, with employers bearing the cost of tests.
MEF and Rehda previously lamented that a swab test was costly, with the former predicting it would cost employers over a billion ringgit in total in view of the 2.3 million foreign workers in the country.
They also pushed for the government to pay for the tests, citing the Covid-19 impact on the economy.
Ismail later said Socso would bear the cost of their swab tests as 60% of these workers were Socso contributors.
Shamsuddin advised the authorities to quickly address the remaining 40% of legal workers who were not Socso contributors, so that all legal foreign workers would be covered by Socso.
He also said many employers were confused by the government’s ruling due to “the changing nature and requirements”, following a series of announcements on the matter.
“If a company is employing foreign workers in KL and Selangor and is not in the construction sector, are they required to send the foreign workers for a swab test?” he asked.
He said it was vital for the government to prioritise its screening requirements and come up with a policy that was implementable.
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