KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — The International Trade and Industry Ministry will permit a maximum 10 per cent of management staff in certain sectors to go to work for limited hours in areas with movement restrictions.
Senior International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said managers and supervisors in accounting, finance, administration, legal, planning, and ICT (information and communications technology) located in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Sabah, and Labuan — which are all under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) — will be allowed to work in office for four hours a day (10am to 2pm) three days a week starting tomorrow.
“Companies do not have to apply for approval for this. Employers only need to issue a travel exemption letter for each staff member who is allowed to work during the CMCO.
“Employers must set appropriate WFH (work-from-home) guidelines according to the needs of their respective companies,” Azmin said in a statement today.
The senior minister did not mention if managers or supervisors in retail will be permitted to go to work.
Azmin said 776,135 staff in management and supervisory positions — or 25 per cent of the 3.1 million workforce in manufacturing, services, and construction in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Sabah, and Labuan — will be required to work from home starting tomorrow.
MITI gave an example of a manufacturing company with 1,000 workers in operations and 100 staff in managerial and supervisory positions, where the 1,000 workers in operations can go to work as usual, while a maximum of 10 per cent, or 100 employees, at management and supervisory levels are also allowed to go to work, instead of working from home.
Public Service director-general Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman said in a statement today that a maximum 30 per cent of civil servants will be allowed to go to work from tomorrow until the end of movement restrictions in CMCO areas, with exemptions for delivery of important services.
All officials at the management and administration levels in government ministries, departments, and agencies — who are not needed full-time in office — are required to work from home by taking turns or full-time.
“In line with that, all face-to-face activities like meetings, discussions, and training are not allowed and must be fully done online. Official secret documents are not allowed to be taken out during this period.”
Senior Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced yesterday that the work-from-home rule will be enforced on managers and supervisors across the private and public sectors in the Klang Valley, Sabah, and Labuan from October 22 throughout the duration of the CMCO, which will cover about 800,000 private sector workers and 200,000 civil servants.
He added that the government has not yet decided whether to extend movement restrictions beyond set end dates, amid the current Covid-19 wave that has hit Sabah the hardest. The CMCO in Sabah, the Klang Valley, and Labuan are set to end on October 26, October 27, and October 30 respectively.
Workers living in red zones, who are unable to work from home, must get a Covid-19 swab test before going to work in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Sabah, or Labuan. People who live outstation, but work in those CMCO areas, do not have to get tested.
All foreign workers across sectors in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Sabah, and Labuan must also do another swab test before going to work. The Social Security Organisation (Socso) will bear testing costs for its contributors.
Update at 5:18pm: This article was updated to include MITI’s example of a work-from-home policy in paragraph 7.
