KUCHING, Apr 1: Sarawak Bank Employees Union (SBEU) urged the government to carefully monitor the assistance given out to companies during the Movement Control Order (MCO) to ensure taxpayer’s money is not wasted on foreign workers.
The union chief executive officer Andrew Lo in a press statement said it was “beyond comprehension” to hear claims that 1/3 of Malaysian companies will run out of cash by mid-April.
According to him, it showed that most owners of businesses in Malaysia had been taking out cash even before accounts for the year are finalised.
“Now the employers are demanding on the government to bail them out and to subsidise up to 80 per cent of wages and to cut EPF contribution to just 5 per cent, whereby a lot of these businesses are employing 3 million foreign workers.
“It is a travesty if Malaysian taxpayers subsidise the salaries of the millions of foreign workers. Perhaps its time to reduce the number of foreign workers,” said Lo.
He also noted that although the government assistance for employers and business affected during the MCO period was greatly appreciated, there remained some hyperbole and fearmongering among employers.
Lo said that there seem to be a massive, coordinated and probably expensive ‘public relation’ campaign by employers demanding more assistance, with some even calling for the government to stop all assistance to workers and for subsidies to be paid directly to employers.
“Some even want to force employees to go for two weeks (four weeks) unpaid leave and cut EPF contributions to 5 per cent for one year.
“It is also important therefore that the government must be able to separate the trees from the forest and to ensure that only deserving companies receive assistance,” he said. —DayakDaily.
