Leader

NST Leader: Labour pain

Never has May begun with so much melancholy. Everywhere in the world, labour is in pain.

With many businesses shuttered, the jobless list reads like a work-in-progress. Cash-strapped and with little custom, companies are finding it hard to keep the workers on their payroll. Airlines, hotels and retail outlets are badly mauled by Covid-19. Governments, too, are finding it hard to get capital and labour back to work, trying as they do by handing out one stimulus package after another.

For the first time in human history, May Day has come to mean a cry for help. The distress call has not gone unanswered in Malaysia. Come Monday, the Movement Control Order (MCO), which started life on March 18, will take the shape of Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

What this means is that almost all economic activities will be allowed to resume subject to Covid-19 protocols. So will social activities, again with the observation of Covid-19 protocols. Thankfully, mass gatherings and businesses that run on crowd-based models such as theatres are a no-no.

That was the Labour Day message of Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to all Malaysians yesterday.

Understandably, not all Malaysians are overjoyed. There will be some who will be worried to death about the mixing and mingling causing a resurgence of the virus. Muhyiddin himself admitted to such a worry in his address.

The worry has a basis. All we need is one errant company or an indisciplined person to break the conditions of the CMCO and we will be faced with an exponential growth of infections. God forbid, if this were to happen, the impact on lives and livelihood will be more severe than it has been.

And the MCO that follows such a resurgence will surely come with a harder bite. Indiscipline and errancy aren't uncommon.

Since March 18, more than 20,000 have been caught violating the order. The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) is already in the news with employer violations (NST, April 29, "MTUC says better plan needed to ensure compliance of SOP"). Companies, especially those which put profit before people, will have no qualms flouting the standard operating procedure.

Fines alone will not deter such errant companies. Unless they are in the tens of millions. Nothing less than a revocation of their business licence will do.

Enforcement during this new normal is extremely critical. If one breach is allowed to go undetected, we will have a national disaster on our hands.

China offers an example to follow. There, like Malaysia's, the goal is not to allow another wave of infections. According to the Financial Times, this is how China does it. Companies are compelled to impose very strict rules.

Temperatures are checked at the entrance of the office, and many times during the working day. Personal Protective Equipment and face masks are a must. Hand sanitisers are freely available.

Only half the staff-strength is allowed to be in the premises. Those who can must work from home. Given the risks involved, workers are not allowed to take public transport to and from work. Office space is marked off by grids of a metre each to allow for social distancing. If this is not enough, there is a questionnaire on health and travel history to be filled every day.

Most importantly, the authorities keep a keen eye on all this. To them, one breach is one too far. So must it be to us.

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