KUALA LUMPUR: Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) has urged the government to make construction industry and building materials supply chain workers a priority under Phase 2 of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
MBAM president Tan Sri Sufri Mohd Zin said the government should aim to complete vaccinating these groups by the third quarter of 2021 and reopen the construction industry in stages.
"The current construction sites operating rate is low. Most contractors in operation have noted that the shortage of existing building material stocks will most deplete soon.
"The Construction Industry Vaccination Programme (CIVac) allocated vaccines for only 40,000 workers under Phase 1 and 100,000 workers under Phase 2, which represents 10 per cent out of the 1.4 million workers in the industry.
"As much as we are pleased with CIVac implementation, it is impossible to achieve the targeted herd immunity if we accord to the government's current vaccination rate.
"At the same time, the government should consider a more pragmatic and humane approach to foreign workers in the industry, especially those who hold expired travel documents or work passes, as they are stranded in the country due to lack of transportation back to their home country," he said in a joint statement with 35 other construction associations today.
The signatories include the Building Materials Distributors Associations of Malaysia (BMDAM), Melaka Builders Association, Malaysia Bricks Manufacturer Association and Malaysia Mobile Crane Owners Association.
Sufri said achieving vaccination success is highly dependent vaccinating as many people as possible.
"Excluding a large group can deliberately affect the timeline to achieve herd immunity.
"While it is not an ideal solution, we are in the view that priority should be given to national vaccination targets over mere enforcement or immigration rules," he said.
He said the associations are putting forth demands including appealing for construction workers vaccination to be carried out by mobile vaccination centres (PPV).
This, said Sufri, will reduce mass movement and minimise interaction between workers and the local community.
He also urged that the construction industry be reopened from now instead of under Phase 3 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
"The use of threshold values collectively at the national level is opposed to the use of specific local situations, and is not helpful in our members' planning.
"The extension of NRP's Phase 1 to July 2021 without a clear end date is also a sign that the phase transition period remains subjective.
"We recommend for the reopening of our industry to be implemented in stages and order of priority," he said.
Sufri said flexibility can be given to companies that have vaccinated their workers as well as getting them to operate with strict adherence to standard operating procedures (SOP).
He said the supply chain of the construction industry which include suppliers of building materials, professional services or consultants also requires permission to work according to the same timeline as contractors.
He said as such, SOP applicable to the industry as well as other related sub-sectors should be issued earlier before any new restrictions or regulations are enforced to avoid confusion.
"The industry's reopening can be assessed and implemented according to different time frames and determined by factors that are objective as well as localised.
"Among other issues and proposals include expanding the operational coverage of Variation of Price (VOP) clause and automatic Extension of Time (EOT) to construction projects in the private sector as well as amendments to the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease Act 2019 (Covid-19) 2020 to include claims for time and cost-sharing.
"Construction industry players are hopeful that the proposals will be duly scrutinised and subsequently accepted for implementation at an immediate rate," he said.