EMPLOYERS should not hesitate to terminate unvaccinated workers including those who refuse the vaccines on personal or medical grounds, the Malaysian Employer Federation (MEF) said.

MEF president Syed Hussain Syed Husman said the unvaccinated are a threat to others and themselves.

Syed Hussain told The Malaysian Insight the unvaccinated should be prosecuted under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act 1994.

“Employees who refuse to be vaccinated should be prosecuted by the authorities under OSH Act as they have failed to take reasonable steps to ensure their safety and health and that of their co-workers.

“MEF encourages employers to come up with a clear policy on vaccination and to deal with employees who refuse to be vaccinated.

“Those who refuse to be vaccinated without a valid reason should be given reasonable time to get inoculated, failing which they should be dismissed.

“Those who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons should be medically boarded out as it is clear that they are not fit to be allowed into the workplace,” he said.

Syed Hussin said Covid-19 is a threat at the workplaces and the employer must take measures to prevent its spread.

He said one way to do that is through vaccination.

Syed Hussin said the standard operating procedure (SOP) enforced by the National Security Council – temperature screening, identifying symptoms, physical distancing, avoiding crowded places, washing hands and wearing masks – addresses only the probability of contracting Covid-19.

“It does not mitigate the severity of the effect (of infection) on the person. This indicates a significant gap in the current control measures. To address this gap, vaccines must be part of the control measures.

“Statistical analysis as published on the CovidNow website indicates that the increase in vaccination rate has reduced hospital admissions and deaths among the infected. This proves the effectiveness of the vaccines,” he said.

Respect rights

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) recently urged the government and employers to respect a person’s right and freedom to refuse vaccination for various reasons.

Suhakam also advised employers to stop discriminating against the unvaccinated and to refrain from making inoculation mandatory for workers and penalising employees who refused the shots.

In response, Syed Hussin said barring unvaccinated employees from the workplace should not be considered discriminatory as it is the employers’ lawful duty under the OSH Act to ensure the safety and health of the employees at work.

He said industry has imposed vaccination requirements for both service providers and clients, which means unvaccinated employees cannot service clients, which leads to redundancy.

“From the perspective of occupational safety and health, under the OSH Act 1994 sections 15 and 17, employers have a statutory duty to ensure all necessary control measures are implemented to ensure a safe and healthy working environment.

“Those who refused to be vaccinated are in the minority and they should not put the majority of the vaccinated employees at risk of being infected with Covid-19 at the workplace.

“(Also) unvaccinated employees in these industries cannot perform their duties. Thus, this will lead to employment status issues,” he said.

Syed Hussin said MEF members want to rebuild their businesses while preventing infection at the workplace.

He said infections could result in closure of the workplace for sanitisation and health tests for employees, which would cost the employer.

“Most employers can ill afford to bear such costs as they are just starting to rebuild their businesses.” – October 13, 2021.