Malaysia mulls giving a day off for employees to get jab
- Charles Chau
Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said he has agreed to the proposal “in principle” after discussing the matter with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, but added that more discussions needed to be done with relevant stakeholders before an announcement can be made.
Saravanan said Dr Adham had spoken to him on the proposal and “I think, in principle, we have agreed, but I still need to discuss the matter with my ministry on the impact of taking off for a day. Before [making] any further announcement, we want to engage with stakeholders, like the MTUC (Malaysian Trade Union Congress) and a few others to make sure we are all on the same page,” he said.
Saravanan made these comments after a ceremony launching the Human Resource Development Fund Placement Centre (HPC) job placement and up-skilling programme at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Tuesday.
He said this after the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said that giving employees off days to get inoculated was among the proposals put forward to them, primarily to avoid vaccine wastage and to ensure registered individuals show up as scheduled for their jabs.
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Khairy had also announced that Phase Two of the vaccination programme starting on April 19 will kick off with eight states – Kedah, Melaka, Pahang, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Labuan, according to Malay Mail.
