KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan today said that the current labour laws need to be revised in order to suit the “new normal” following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Saravanan said this approach is significant to ensure labour laws are relevant to the current situation in order to assure the welfare and safety of employees are protected under this new norm.
“We can no longer assume the employment norms in the past to remain relevant today. We need to change the way we work, think, interact and act in order to adapt to the current situation.
“New work culture is a challenge for employers and employees, we need to act intelligently in exploring new work ideas in this new complex and ever-changing work environment.
“We need to accept the fact that our business, jobs and lives will change to a new norm, even after the end of the movement control order (MCO),” he said in his special address broadcast via national television channel RTM.
Saravanan said that social distancing must be practiced and commercial activities will be subjected to the Covid-19 “infection zones” while a new home-based practice and standard operating procedure (SOP) will replace the old.
Following the impact brought by the Covid-19 to employees and employers, Saravanan said that the government has introduced the employment retention programme (ERP) and wage subsidy via the Social Security Organisation (Socso).
“ERP is a temporary financial aid worth of RM600 a month, which will be to eligible workers and employers for a maximum period of six months. ERP has received 25,111 applications from employers which involves 208,907 employees.
“While, for wage subsidy, a total of 234,801 employers had applied, which involves 1.85 million employees,” he said.
He also said the Ministry is structuring a strategy for redeployment programme, which will ensure retrenchment to be at a minimum level.
“Under this redeployment approach, workers will be exposed to reskilling and upskilling programmes,” he said.
