KUALA LUMPUR: People working in the sanitisation and waste management sector must be prioritised for Covid-19 vaccination as a majority of them have not been inoculated despite being at increased risk of infection.
Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor said a majority of workers in the sanitation sector are still waiting to be vaccinated, which have caused them to be stressed and worried of the possibility of being infected with the virus while on duty.
"The government has categorised public sanitisation workers as an essential service. Their work is needed. They have been working from Movement Control Order (MCO) 1.0 until MCO 3.0, but when priority vaccinations and allowances are given to frontliners, these workers were removed from the list.
"These differences in interpretation have caused the sanitisation workers to become a second-class employment sector and appear to be unrecognised by the government.
"Is the contribution and education standard of sanitisation workers an aspect to the government in determining who are the frontliners?" he said in a statement on Friday.
Kamarul also raised caution over the cleaning workers at schools who were still not vaccinated.
If the government plans on reopening schools on Sept 1 as announced, he questioned if all cleaning workers would have been inoculated by then to prevent them from potentially becoming a carrier of the virus and spreading them in schools.
"MTUC is very disappointed with the slow vaccination process, especially concerning the workers. Perhaps mandatory measures are necessary before employees are allowed to work in the Enhanced Movement Control Order areas.
"MTUC is concerned and wants a transparent and concrete explanation for the spread of the virus in the community.
"According to a report made by a contract doctor, who handles patients in the emergency department, Covid transmission is high and Covid positive workers are forced to work for several days where they are infecting others."
Kamarul further said allowing the manufacturing sector to operate to boost the economy was not a valid reason to put workers' lives at risk.
Leaving companies to run on their own without strict supervision such as no enforcers to monitor every factory daily is the root cause of Covid transmission, he noted.
"The government also needs to improve the condition of hospitals and the vaccination process should be expanded and simplified," he added.