Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said vaccinations were still on a voluntary basis unless the government came up with legislation to make it mandatory.

Shamsuddin said employers should instead assist the government by encouraging their employees to be vaccinated.

“To encourage vaccinations, employers can inform their employees that the company will not bear the cost of treatment if they are infected with Covid-19,” he said.

He said employees could reach out to the authorities if they felt the company was infringing on their rights.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) deputy president Mohd Effendy Abdul Ghani said every worker had the right to choose whether to be vaccinated or not.

Effendy said more awareness should be given to employees on the importance of getting vaccinated instead.

“MTUC suggests that employers should take more proactive action by organising talks on why everyone needs to be vaccinated,” he said.

He said vaccine awareness education should be focused on those working in the manufacturing, industrial, automotive and construction sectors as there were many clusters from these workplaces.

They were commenting on the results of a survey by Employment Hero that showed that 70% of Malaysian businesses would want to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for all their staff.

The human resources firm said of all the countries surveyed, Malaysian employers showed the highest level of compulsory vaccination intent compared with Australia (33%), the UK (33%), and New Zealand (35%).

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