**See full Joint Statement of now 51 groups at Make COVID-19 an Occupational Disease under Law to ensure social protection for all workers and their families (51 Groups)
* Thank you Malaysiakini
Workers groups call for law defining Covid-19 as occupational disease
Modified 12:13 pm
CORONAVIRUS
| A group of 47 activist organisations and trade unions have urged the
government to make Covid-19 an occupational disease by law.
"By
doing so, workers who are infected by Covid-19 at their workplace, even
during this period, will become entitled to social protection accorded
by social security schemes and laws," said the group which included the
MTUC, Nufam and NUBE.
"Those who die due to contracting Covid-19 at the workplace, will also be easily entitled to compensations, and their spouses/children/elderly parents will also become entitled to survivor benefits including pensions," said the group.
"Employers have a duty to ensure a safe working environment, and should also be required to ensure that the workplace is safe from Covid-19 and/or any other dangerous communicable diseases, especially those that can result in death or other permanent disabilities," it added.
"Those who die due to contracting Covid-19 at the workplace, will also be easily entitled to compensations, and their spouses/children/elderly parents will also become entitled to survivor benefits including pensions," said the group.
"Employers have a duty to ensure a safe working environment, and should also be required to ensure that the workplace is safe from Covid-19 and/or any other dangerous communicable diseases, especially those that can result in death or other permanent disabilities," it added.
Among the 47 signatories of the statement
included the National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied
Industries Workers Malaysia, Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor
(Empower), Timber Industry Employee Union Sarawak, Sarawak Banking
Employees Union, Malay Forest Officers Union, Malaysian Automotive
Industry Workers Union Federation, Persatuan Sahabat Wanita Selangor and
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture.
The
group called on Human Resources Minister M Saravanan to use the powers
conferred by subsection 32(2) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
1994 (Act 514) and declare that Covid-19 be recognised as an
occupational disease.
The group said that despite the movement
control order (MCO) being in place, workers in the essential services
sector who are traveling to and from work every day are at greater risk
of getting the disease.
"Now,
recently even workers in charge of Human Resources, are required to
travel and return to their workplaces for the purposes of arranging the
monthly payment of salaries to workers.
"Workers who are also needed (or forced) to stay in particular accommodation by employers, should also be covered.
"The
Covid-19 pandemic highlights the inadequacies in occupational safety
and health laws, and also social security laws for workers; it is time
to remedy these failings," it said.
The group also claimed that in
the past, workers had been forced to house together or work together
and ended up contracting life-threatening ailments like tuberculosis
from others.
It called for laws to apply to all workers, including migrant workers and domestic workers.
In
Malaysia, local workers are generally covered by the Employees' Social
Security Act 1969, which provides better protection to workers and/or
their families compared to the Workmen’s Compensation Act 1952 that
generally covered migrant workers.
Malaysia has recorded a total of 2,908 infections with a death toll of 45, a mortality rate of 1.55 percent.
Globally the death toll stands at over 47,000.
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