LETTER | Operating businesses during MCO must be classified as offence
LETTER
| We, the 29 undersigned groups, organisations and trade unions are
appalled that it seems that it is no longer an offence for
companies/businesses not providing essential services to continue to
operate during this movement control order(MCO) to check the spread of
Covid-19.
It not only defeats the intention of the movement
control order (MCO) in place in Malaysia since March 18 it also places
hundreds of workers at serious risk of contracting this disease that
causes death and which also puts their families and others at risk.
The
Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in Malaysia taking necessary drastic
actions to get people to stay at home, practice social distancing and
for all business premises, save those providing selected "essential
services" to close during this MCO period.
However, there appears
that many companies/businesses that are not on the list of essential
services are continuing to operate all over Malaysia including glue
factories, furniture factories and wood product factories and many
others.
When
it was highlighted recently, the government stopped Heineken from
operating even though it could be argued it fell within the list of
essential services but a sincere government interested in the safety of
the people ought to not simply exempt companies/businesses for any other
reason save for those listed as providing essential services.
Exemptions
by government should not be simply given. Note also the new
regulations, that replaces earlier regulations have not just reduced the
list of essential services but have also not added any new items to the
list, like wood industries that earlier was allegedly granted
exemptions.
On April 4. Defence Minister Ismail Sabri
Yaakob was reported as saying that over 4,000 people have been arrested
by the police thus far during the ongoing movement control order (MCO)
with nearly 1,500 charged in court. However, what is odd that we do not
hear of many companies/businesses being charged for wrongly continuing
to operate during the MCO.
As far as businesses and companies are
concerned, at the beginning of the MCO, we read about action taken
against a construction company who allegedly violated the MCO but there
were no directors or managers charged and the company seems to have not
been charged for breaking the regulations made under Prevention and
Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988. Since then, we have not heard
about businesses and/or companies being charged.
However,
after the first MCO ended and the second MCO began, new regulations had
to be made, and so it was done - Prevention And Control Of Infectious
Diseases (Measures Within Infected Local Areas) (No. 2) Regulations 2020
(PU(A) 109/2020.
What is glaringly absent from the new
regulations that are in effect from April 1 until April 14 is the
absence of the same or similar Section/Regulation 5 in the old
regulations, which means that now it may no longer be an offence for
companies/businesses which do not provide essential services or "have
obtained the permission of the director-general of health" to continue
to operate. Hence, businesses operating against the MCO would likely not
be able to be prosecuted or charged for doing so as there is no clear
offence in law.
It gives the impression that the Malaysian
government may have elected to protect businesses/companies and their
directors, managers, etc, which is totally odd and most questionable.
Despite
the raising of this failing in public space, no amendment to the
regulations has been gazetted that would make it an offence for
businesses, not allowed to operate to continue to operate during the
MCO.
Note that when such a business/company continues to operate,
workers have no choice but to return to work – for a failure to work may
mean termination and loss of a job.
Prime Minister
Muhyiddin Yasin’s coalition government, known as Perikatan Nasional,
that came into power at the beginning of March but not after a general
election, is a loose coalition of political parties and independent
members of Parliament (MPs) and doubts still linger whether the new PM
still enjoys a majority of support amongst the MPs.
This could be a
factor as the loss of support of even a few MPs could result in a
collapse of this government. As such, it may be difficult for the
government of the day to deny a request for MCO exemption for businesses
made by some of these MPs and/or their political parties for fear of
loss of support.
It is hoped that such political and other
considerations will not defeat the primary intentions of the MCO to
combat the spread and overcome Covid-19 that threatens every human life
in Malaysia, including workers and their families, who are forced to
leave homes to go to work when such exemptions are granted.
When
an employer company/business not on the current list of essential
services applies for exemption, workers ought to have the right to be
heard before exemptions are granted.
Even after exemptions are
granted, workers ought to justly have the right to appeal the decision
of the DG or minister of health, failing which they do have a legal
right to challenge any such government decisions in court by way of a
judicial review.
However, because of the MCO and its restrictions,
including the closure of law firms and the diminished operations of the
courts at this time, it is very difficult, for workers and/or their
trade unions to even mount these appeals and/or challenges in court
these "exemptions". The right for workers to exercise their legal right
to picket is also denied at the moment.
Therefore, we
-
Call on the Malaysian government to immediately amend the
Prevention And Control Of Infectious Diseases (Measures Within Infected
Local Areas) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 (PU(A) 109/2020 to clearly make it
an offence for companies/businesses to operate in violation of the law
during this MCO period;
- Call on the Malaysian
government to also subsequently investigate and prosecute all who
wrongly granted permission and/or "exemptions" that led to such
companies/businesses, who are not allowed to do so during the MCO
period, to operate, irrespective of whether they are currently
ministers, director- generals, members of the cabinet or state executive
councillors;
- Call on the Malaysian
government, all ministers and state/local governments to put aside all
political and/or economic considerations during the MCO period, in the
interest of safety and health of all in Malaysia as we battle Covid-19.;
-
Call for the immediate publication and gazette of the list of
all companies/businesses allowed to operate during the MCO by reason of
exemption by the Ministry or DG of Health;
- Call for the
immediate release of all workers who were sentenced to jail simply for
working as instructed by their employer.
The above is endorsed by the writer and Apolinar Tolentino for and on behalf of the following 29 groups:
Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC)
Persatuan Sahabat Wanita Selangor(PSWS)
Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) Asia Pacific Region
Madpet (Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture)
Aliran
National Union of Banking Employees (Nube)
Kesatuan Sekerja Industri Elektronik Wilayah Selatan, Semenanjung Malaysia (KSIEWSSM)
National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam)
Network of Action For Migrants in Malaysia (Namm)
Women Against Rape, United Kingdom
Labour Behind the Label, United Kingdom
Global Women’s Strike, United Kingdom
Legal Action for Women, United Kingdom
Payday Men’s Network, United Kingdom
Payday Men’s Network, USA
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)
Sabah Women's Action Resource Group (Sawo)
Women of Color/Global Women’s Strike, United Kingdom
International Black Women for Wages for Housework.
Cement Industry Employees Union (CIEU)
Malayan Technical Services Union (MTSU)
Ministry of Forestry Union (MFOU)
PKNS Employees Union (PKNS)
Sabah Timber Industry Employees Union (STIEU)
Timber Employees Union of Peninsula Malaysia (TEUPM)
Timber Industry Employees Union of Sarawak (TIEUS)
Union of Construction Industry Employees (UECI)
Union of Forestry Employees of Sarawak (UFES) - Malaysiakini, 10/4/2020
See full statement at:-
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