PUTRAJAYA: Only workers in essential services are allowed to leave their homes in Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) areas to go to work when the EMCO is in force.
Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said this following the announcement that most parts of Selangor and certain localities in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur will be placed under the EMCO from July 3 to July 16 due to high number of Covid-19 cases.
"Therefore, employers are required to adhere to this order and allow their workers (in non-essential services) to work from home (WFH)," he said in a statement.
Saravanan also reminded employers to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) under EMCO, especially on the number of workers allowed in the office or other work places.
He said the Human Resource Ministry had received complaints from workers claiming that their employers had threatened them with work termination if they refused to work from the office.
He advised workers to report cases of errant employers to the ministry by using the Working for Workers (WFW) mobile application.
Apart from WFH-related complaints, the app also has 16 other categories of complaints involving various labour issues.
"The ministry regards each complaint seriously and will take the appropriate action," he said.
He said 1,878 complaints were recorded by the WFW app between May 23 and yesterday regarding the issue of employers forbidding their workers to work from home.
Selangor had the most number of WFH-related complaints at 696, followed by FT of Kuala Lumpur (505), Johor (196) and Penang (123).
Saravanan said 59 compounds on violation of worker attendance capacity at the office or workplace had been issued by the Labour Department of Peninsular Malaysia and Occupational Safety and Health Department between June 1 and July 1. — Bernama