PUTRAJAYA, April 23 — Construction companies that are allowed to operate during the movement control order (MCO) period must ensure that their employees are free of Covid-19 or face higher costs to cover all costs of treatment.
Senior Minister (infrastructure) Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said one of the main requirements for construction companies to operate was by ensuring that their workers were Covid-19 negative and that all workers’ health examinations including hospitalisation costs would be borne by the company.
“This means that even if there is only one (positive Covid-19) the project will be halted and there is a mandatory screening for all. This will surely cost them even more.
“So it is best to obey all stipulated SOPs (standard operating procedures) so that the project can run without interruption due to a positive case,“ he told a media conference on Construction SOP during MCO, here yesterday.
To date, over 19,000 applications had been received, of which only 1,856 were approved while about 7,000 were rejected.
“About 8,000 more are in the process of evaluation to determine whether they meet the requirements or criteria,“ he said when asked about the number of construction companies which had applied to operate during the MCO.
Commenting further, Fadillah, who is also the Minister of Works, said that among the reasons for an application to fail were incomplete information on project and workers, the work being applied was not included in the 13 categories listed for operation and the project did not belong to the construction cluster.
Citing several construction projects delayed by the MCO, Fadillah said the infrastructure cluster decided to table the provision of the law to introduce a temporary force majeure at the upcoming Parliament session as the result of a discussion at a Cabinet meeting.
“Let’s take Singapore for example, they have a special legislation to deal with this. So, god willing, we will discuss to make sure a win-win situation, no one quarter will incur losses, as we are now in a situation which is out of our control,” he said.
He said this when asked about projects which were interrupted under the MCO as well as the risk of legal action if they failed to complete the project within a specified time.
‘Force majeure’ is an unforeseen circumstance that causes or prevents a person from performing his or her responsibilities as set out in the contract.
Asked about home renovations that were disrupted under the MCO, Fadillah said such works were usually done by small G1 and G2 class contractors and they were allowed to operate.
He said permissions were given as the contractors in such classes did not involve many workers but applications had to be made to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry besides complying with the SOP.
— Bernama
