KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has lauded the government's Pakej Perlindungan Rakyat dan Pemulihan Ekonomi (Pemulih) for focusing on the rakyat's welfare.
Its secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor said the congress was also hopeful for better execution of the packages when the financial assistance is rolled out in time.
On the Employee Provident Fund's (EPF) i-Citr, he said it is up to the respective contributors to decide on whether they want to withdraw their retirement savings under the new scheme.
The i-Citra scheme allows contributors to withdraw a maximum of RM5,000 in the form of RM1,000 a month over five months.
"Currently, there are about 900,000 EPF contributors with less than RM5,000 in savings.
"These figures are troubling and we urge EPF to find ways to increase their savings.
"While it is an option for them to withdraw their EPF savings accounts for survival during the Covid-19 pandemic, the long-term impact on them would hit them in their post-pension years, creating a crisis," he said in a statement here today.
Kamarul was hopeful the government would be able to replenish or reimburse the funds withdrawn by contributors to tide over during the pandemic in the next five years.
On the six-month loan moratorium, he said it was a reasonable move and this would be a step for the bank's to share their profit with the people.
"However we hope that there will be no extra or hidden charges imposed in this automatic moratorium as it is a means to help borrowers rather than banks profit from such a move.
"Banks have to carry out their social responsibility to borrowers by not taking advantage of them (customers) during the desperate situation they are facing now during this pandemic.
"Any changes to the loan agreement within the moratorium period signed by the borrowers must not contain clauses that would be detrimental to them."
Kamarul also said the extension of Wage Subsidy Programme (WSP) 4.0 to another four months would avoid future layoffs.
"We are in favour of this decision, especially in that it would help employers facing issues paying their employees salaries.
"This shows that the government is aware of the increasing layoffs issues faced and we are hopeful there would be no more issues off fraudulent employers under this programme.
"We see jailing employers who abuse the programme as being a necessity, especially those who are proven to be involved in fraudulent business.
"Another issue that needs to be looked into is workers coming under stress brought about by the economic uncertainty," he said.
"Data released by police related to suicide is worrying, and we feel that a drastic and extraordinary measure needs to be taken by the government to prevent an increase of suicide cases."
MTUC, Kamarul said, was also calling upon the government to revert to a targeted Movement Control Order (MCO) that should be based on the number of positive Covid-19 cases, instead of blanket restriction currently being imposed.
"The economic sector needs to be opened up within states and districts that lack positive cases, with a strict standard operating procedure (SOP).
"The power to manage these targeted MCOs can be delegated to the state government and place the onus on them to take responsibility in formulating policies and regulations.
"For example, Sabah government's move to allow economic sectors such as barber shops and others to reopen shows that the state government could control the Covid-19 situation.
Kamarul said the congress was also hopeful that there would be no red tape when it comes to distributing food baskets.
This was more so after an RM300,000 allocation for each member of the Parliament was provided for them to distribute food baskets to the people in need.