ABOUT 4% of Malaysian hotel staff have been laid off due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, while 17% have taken unpaid leave and 9% received pay cuts, according to English-language daily The Star.

Quoting figures furnished by the Malaysian Hotels’ Association, the English daily said a total of 16,868 workers have either been laid off, forced to take unpaid leave or had their wages cut. 

The MAH said from a sample size of 56,299 employees across Malaysia, 2,041 were laid off, 9,773 took unpaid leave while 5,054 had had their wages cut.

The industry also expects to lose RM560.72 million in revenue during the movement-control order (MCO), which started on March 18 and has now been extended to April 14, The Star reports.

The government imposed the MCO to break the chain of Covid-19 infections in Malaysia, which has killed 20 so far and sickened 1,796 people.

Occupancy rates are expected to fall to 11% according to the MAH, the report said.  

Kuala Lumpur has the largest number of workers who have been laid off at 542, pay cuts (2,880) and forced to take unpaid leave (3,641). 

The federal capital also saw the largest number of cancellations from January 22 to March 20 at 61,859, which caused losses of RM24.91 million.

Selangor is the second state with the largest number of workers affected at 2,184 out of which 238 were laid off, 1,812 were put on unpaid leave and 134 had their wages cut.

Sabah’s hotels and resorts, which would normally be filled with Chinese tourists, saw 2,145 of its workers also being either laid off (177), forced to take unpaid leave (1,075) or had their wages cut (893).

Other badly hit states included Perak, which had the second largest number of lay-offs at 245 and Pahang at 231.

The association expects things to slightly improve only in May or June if the pandemic eases, with occupancy rates increasing by 19% and 25% respectively. – March 26, 2020.