WHILE players welcome the government’s move to allow more industries to operate under the movement-control order, they fear that red tape is causing delays to resume work.

Among their major concerns are requirements that employers must test employees for Covid-19 before resuming operations.

This is among the rules laid down by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti).

Malaysian Employers’ Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bahrin told The Malaysian Insight that such tests take a long time to complete, especially if there are many employees, leading to delays to restarting work.

“It is like putting on the brakes before starting work. The process won’t be smooth,” he said.

While it’s important for the government to set conditions to control the spread of the virus, it should not be at the expense of the economy, he said.

“The problem now is that if you apply to MITI for approvals, the process may take more than a week. During this period, you don’t know whether to send employees for a test or not.

“This is because you don’t know whether your application will be approved.”

Shamsuddin also agreed with the suggestion to allow medical personnel go to factories or enterprises to conduct large-scale testing instead of getting workers to go to clinics for tests.

“We have been saying that there is too much red tape, including the need to apply for approval.

“So, the government should directly declare the industries that can resume, the locations and the related standard operating procedures.

“If the employer thinks that it cannot be satisfied, the company’s operations should not be reinstated.”

He said only those who can meet the conditions should resume work.

“These are important things, rather than to micromanage the whole thing.”

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers president Soh Thian Lai also agreed that the requirement for medical examination of workers will delay operations.

“But this move is good to pre-empt the infection and after Covid-19 tests, the approved sectors employees will have a peace of mind to work under a controlled working environment with social distancing,” Soh said.

He also said it’s not known if the 3,000 clinics designated by Socso to conduct medical tests have started their services and what is their capacity.

There are also concerns on whether there are enough laboratories to examine the samples and provide the test results within 24 hours.

Employees can only go to the designated clinics endorsed by Socso near their homes for testing during the MCO, he said.

“We recommend that companies with large workforce can be tested at their workplace.”

Meanwhile, Small and Medium Enterprise Association Malaysia president Michael Kang said SMEs are still waiting for details on the process.

“The problem is that the procedure has not been announced yet and we hope it will be announced soon.”

Kang said the government’s move to allow certain sectors to operate with conditions is better than a blanket stop on operations until the MCO is over.

He said the 3,000 designated clinics should be sufficient for employees of approved companies to be screened.

But employers eager to start work could also send their employees for screening at private clinics but this will be on their own expenses, he said.

International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali said on Saturday that the government required all enterprises approved to resume work to have their employees tested for Covid-19 at designated clinics.

In addition, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri said the government required all food delivery personnel to undergo medical examinations at either government or private clinics.

The third phase of the MCO is set to end on April 28. Under this phase, companies involved in essential services are allowed to operate, pending approval from Miti.

They are allowed to operate at 50% of their capacity and all employees must be screened for Covid-19.

Up until yesterday, Malaysia reported a double-digit growth in Covid-19 cases for the third day, with 84 infections, bringing the tally to 5,389.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 95 patients have recovered and discharged as of noon yesterday.

The number of discharged patients stands at 3,197 with recoveries making up 59.3% of the total of cases.

One patient died from the coronavirus, bringing the number of casualties to 89. – April 20, 2020.