A year working from home, government needs to hear problems of workers - MTUC

KUALA LUMPUR: The government should give attention to the problems borne by workers who have been working from home for almost a year.

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) is of the view that many problems that workers faced have not been fully resolved.

MTUC Acting President Mohd Effendy Abdul Ghani stressed that the cost of purchasing devices and utility charges such as electricity and internet data remains a problem for employees.

"With the start of the work from home instructions, employees need all the basic necessities or work equipment such as desktops and laptops, and utility subsidies including electricity and internet data.

"We have voiced the matter in the hope that the government provides discounts to employers or employees.

“In addition, all our children are learning from home. To study and work online is indeed using a lot of internet data, thus increasing costs to employees.

"MTUC has long voiced for the government to review this but there has been no specific discussion between the three parties, namely with the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) and the government for us to discuss on how best to address these issues," he said when contacted by Astro AWANI on Saturday.

He said this as a comment on the proposal submitted by the MEF for the government to increase incentives to employees and employers in reducing the existing burden following work from home instructions.

In fact, Mohd Effendy admitted that workers with families also had to bear high costs due to the need to provide learning devices and internet data for children who undergo teaching and learning from home (PdPR).

"In terms of device requirements, there has been a discount for the purchase of computers through the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) tax exemption but if possible, the government should give a discount in encouraging more.

"In terms of telecommunications, if we look abroad, most of those who work from home are given free data and it can help workers.

"In fact, the government needs to pay attention to those who are in rural areas where internet access is quite difficult.

“That is one of the things that the government needs to consider to ensure that those who work from home are effective," he added.