PETALING JAYA: While employers were relieved that the lockdown on the non-essential services sector had been lifted, restrictions imposed for the corporate offices to remain closed was hampering overall business recovery efforts.
MEF President Dato’ Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman J.P. said: “We received feedback from our members questioning the rationale for their corporate offices to remain closed when the factory offices were allowed to open.
“Many employers were perplexed by this situation as major decisions are made at the management level and not at the production sites.
“The operations effectiveness is lost should the corporate offices be required to remain closed.
“Without the corporate office running, the decisions were being made remotely and this creates a lot of confusion in operations and management.
“There are many decisions that the operations or factories cannot make as it has to follow the strategic decision of the company.
“For example, all key decisions including Finance and IT are based in the headquarters.
“We need both hands on deck to make things work.”
He said there were still much confusion over the SOP that was hindering industry efforts to rebuild business.
“Incomplete policies would only create unwanted stress in the management of our operations,” said Dato’ Dr Syed Hussain.
“Therefore, for efficient and productive management, we need to ensure that decision makers are back at work in the office.
“We would like to propose to the authorities that employees who has had two doses of the vaccine be allowed to return to the office to work.
“Employers should also be allowed to self-manage the Covid situation at the workplace following the SOP.
“We are not able to micro manage business by keeping the corporate office shut, especially in zones that are open.
“Self-management is the way to go in an endemic situation.
“We hope the authorities understand the business concerns and trust employers to self-manage the SOP because this would greatly reduce administrative stress, and also enable the business to run and build back – which is in itself a very tall order.
“In this way, employers would be able to optimise efforts to recover their business and this would in turn help Malaysia’s economy recover faster.”
For further information, contact the MEF Secretariat at 03-7955-7778 or fax 03-7955-9008 or email mef-hq@mef.org.my.
14 SEPTEMBER 2021