Minister: More than 155k employees laid off during pandemic
PARLIAMENT | A total of 155,893 employees have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 outbreak, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said.
However, he added, the retrenchments were done according to the law and none of the 5,959 employers has been brought to court for violating the Employment Act 1955.
“The ministry, via the Labour Department...
PARLIAMENT | A total of 155,893 employees have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 outbreak, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said.
However, he added, the retrenchments were done according to the law and none of the 5,959 employers has been brought to court for violating the Employment Act 1955.
“The ministry, via the Labour Department always acts proactively in assisting and tracking local employees who were laid off due to the pandemic.
“From 2020 to July 2021, a total of 5,095 employers retrenched a total of 141,191 staff in Peninsular Malaysia. In Sarawak, a total of 509 employers laid off 8,996 staff during the same period,” Saravanan said in a parliamentary reply yesterday.
“In Sabah, 5,706 workers who were employed by 355 bosses involved in the accommodation sector, services sector, food and beverages industry and the food services chain and in the construction sector, have lost their jobs between 2020 and September 2021,” he said.
The ministry has closely monitored the situation to ensure that the rights and welfare of the employees were not neglected, he said.
“For this purpose, employers must fill an employment notification Retrenchment Form (PK Form) and submit it to the Labour Office at least 30 days before the termination, as according to Section 63 of the Employment Act,” he said.
“This is to ensure the workers been paid in accordance with the law, from the aspect of termination benefits, termination notice and other financial benefits.
“Employers who fail to comply with the law or contravene any provision under the law can be fined up to RM10,000 upon conviction.
“Up until now, none of the employers has been brought to court because they all terminated their workers according to the provisions of the Act,” Saravanan told RSN Rayer (Harapan-Jelutong).
The opposition MP had asked him to provide the total number of employers against whom action has been taken action for laying off workers since the movement control order (MCO) came into force in 2020 till now.
In a separate parliamentary reply, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi said a total of 15,537 businesses were forced to close down from 2020 to August 2021.
This involved the wholesale trade sector, retail sector and vehicle workshops, he told Rozman Isli (Warisan-Labuan) who asked the minister to provide figures of businesses winding up during the pandemic.
Alexander said a similar trend occurred during the pre-Covid-19 period, with 13,527 businesses closing down in 2019.
“The year 2020 saw a total of 10,487 businesses closed down and as of July 31, 2021, a total of 5,050 businesses have shut down,” he said.
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