Off day for vaccination: it’s up to bosses, says minister

Off day for vaccination: it’s up to bosses, says minister

M Saravanan says one day's leave a good idea but the government cannot declare a holiday for this purpose.

The human resources ministry said an off day would give confidence to Malaysian workers to be vaccinated as some were still worried about the jab.
KUALA LUMPUR:
The human resources ministry agrees that employers should grant leave to their staff to take the Covid-19 vaccination, but it cannot force them to do so, according to its minister M Saravanan.

He said the off day would give confidence to Malaysians to be vaccinated as some were still worried about the jab.

“However, it depends on the employer to give leave or not as the government cannot declare a special holiday as it is not carried out on the same day,” he said at a media conference after attending the launch of functional adaptive clothing by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) here today.

Recently, coordinating minister for the national immunisation programme, Khairy Jamaluddin, had said the off day was among suggestions made at the meeting of the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee with the human resources ministry.

Speaking on Socso’s functional adaptive clothing, Saravanan said 1,000 sets of such clothing, specially designed to give flexibility for people with disabilities (OKU), would be distributed to non-governmental organisations nationwide.

He said various parties, including corporate bodies, had contributed 250 sets of the adaptive clothing to OKUs.

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