KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (July 7): The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) has encouraged enforcement agencies to adopt a more instructional approach to their responsibilities in ensuring that enterprises have Covid-19 prevention standard operating procedures (SOPs). The federation’s president, Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai, said in a statement that it is a better approach than the authorities’ current approach, which he described as “very aggressive and microscopic fault-finding,” in which companies are fined immediately with little opportunity and time to correct faults.
“There is very little empathy offered to businesses that are fighting to stay afloat.” Instead, many enforcement visits/checks are focused on finding the tiniest flaw in the premises, with little regard for the amount of relevance of the flaw in relation to the visit’s main goal, which is to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 infection,” he stated.
He went on to say that factories have been subjected to several raids by law enforcement agencies that interpret SOPs and Ministry of International Trade and Industry approvals differently.
“FMM has received complaints from members about very hostile enforcement teams and fines being imposed for the tiniest fault or slight deviation from the Covid-19 SOPs, which are not done on purpose because adherence to the SOPs has already been ingrained as part of the new normal of business operations,” says FMM.
Minor non-compliance or genuine oversight on one item under the SOPs, such as not having enough hand sanitizer locations, failure to mark the entry and exit door/pathways, failure to cordon off non-operation production lines, and so on, are being used against companies during the lockdown period when enforcement teams are unable to identify any other faults pertaining to the actual business.
“FMM wishes to reiterate that blaming industries for minor SOP issues and imposing fines and business closures based on different interpretations of the SOPs is not acceptable because it instills fear and anxiety in the business community, particularly among SMEs (small and medium enterprises), despite the fact that they have all necessary approvals and SOPs in place,” Soh said.
He also stated that factories are not the primary source of Covid-19 infections.
”
Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of Health, recently stated during a meeting with the business community on July 4, 2021 that over 70% of the total cases were sporadic, while 30% came from clusters, with 62 percent being workplace clusters.
“Only 30% of these workplace clusters are located in factories. This equates to just about 6% of the total number of cases that may be traced back to factories. More recently, the Ministry of Health (MOH) claimed that the manufacturing sector was responsible for just 15,069 (9.7%) of 156,105 infection cases between June 1, 2021 and June 26, 2021. Other evidence also supports the notion that factories are not the primary source of occupational illnesses,” he added.
Dr. Noor Hisham also stated that only 14.4%, or 95,156, of the 662,457 Covid-19 cases in the country as of June 14 came from the manufacturing sector, while International Trade and Industry Senior Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali stated that only 12,872 cases, or 9.3%, of the 138,649 infections came from the sector from June 1-23.
“In total, the manufacturing sector accounted for only 5% to 10% of infection cases on average this year.”
“Given that the virus is currently in the community, it is expected that workplace clusters will emerge.” Workplaces, particularly those in the industrial sector, would have to continue to operate to sustain the economy, he added, given the necessity to assist the economy during this very difficult economic scenario.
Soh asked the government to use the National Immunisation Program and the Program Immunisasi Industri Awam Swasta to vaccinate more people, particularly those in the Enhanced Movement Control Order districts of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur./n
