THE ‘Safe Work Bubble’ initiative that will allow close contacts of Covid-19 patients to continue working at manufacturing firms until being declared free from the virus has drawn mixed reactions from key stakeholders and industry players.
As outlined by Putrajaya, this effort would help to ensure smooth operations and reduce impact towards productivity when Covid-19 cases are detected in factories.
Penang, dubbed as the ‘Silicon Valley of the East’, houses many manufacturing corporations and is considered to be one of the centre of investments in the region.
To obtain the response on the ‘Safe Work Bubble’ initiative, Buletin Mutiara managed to interview some of the state’s industry players. Below are their views:
Datuk Seri Lee Kah Choon (InvestPenang executive director)
“This ‘Safe Work Bubble’ initiative will allow close contacts of Covid-19 patients to continue working until they are declared free of the disease. However, I wonder whether this suggestion may allow high risk close contacts to infect the healthy workforce.
“One of the options that can be considered by the Government is to ensure a safety surrounding by allowing accommodation facilities to be built within the factory compound.
“As of now, most of the workers from various factories stay in a common building which allows cross-infection from workers. Hence, I hope the Government can address some of these issues beforehand.”
Datuk Jimmy Ong (Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Penang Chairman)
“Although we have yet to receive further details on such initiative as the registration will only start on April 1, many issues need to be looked into.
“For instance, it may be too costly to find a separate isolation accommodation to house the local workers. It’s easier to isolate foreign workers but it will be an uphill task for locals.
“Besides that, the tax incentives of RM50,000 per company should be in the form of capital allowance rather than tax deduction.
“We wish to propose that since the International Trade and Industry Malaysia (MITI) has acknowledged that more of the clusters came from the manufacturing sector, it’s only appropriate that the workers from the sector be given priority for vaccination.
“This will be a good solution to create a ‘Worker Safe Bubble’ than the ‘Safe Work Bubble’ initiative.”
Datuk Finn Choong (Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (PCCC) vice-president)
“First of all, I’m glad that the Government is striving to assist the manufacturing firms by ensuring their productions are ongoing.
“However, they must take note that this effort must be done accordingly as it involves a tough task.
“Besides that, the RM50,000 tax exemption will not really attract the ‘big boys’.”
Chuah Choon Bin (Pentamaster Corporation executive director)
“The prevention of Covid-19 in factory is very important. If the entire company is shut down, it will cause heavy losses to the company.
“As for us, we have implemented some preventive measures. Our employees need to be tested before meeting customers.
“If one of them is tested positive, then he or she needs to be quarantined.
“Our company fully prioritises people’s health and safety.”
Story by Edmund Lee